AW12 Paco Rabanne at Totem PR Paris The Paco Rabanne Office When it comes to fashion history I can just about recognise the decades thanks to Disney princesses (gets a little fuzzy when it comes to Mary Poppins though) (Does she even count as a princess? I always thought she’s more of a witch…) so I’d like to apologize first if you’ve spent a week in a dusty library memorizing the influence of Alberto Giacometti in the work of Schiaparelli for your fashion exam. I say this because I had no idea who Paco Rabanne was, even when I was buzzing up to the showroom in Paris I was in the dark as I hadn’t had a chance to look anything up. Mind, this is highly irregular, for someone who even looks up her postman in Google. This is also irregular, for someone who owns MANY bags of jumprings and pliers. [...]

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Hermes Atelier Sacs Rue de Sevres Thank you TCS for the organization and the lovely people at Hermès for the warm welcome & tour.  In school I had a friend who could draw a straight line without the help of a ruler – we called her a witch back then – mind, this was few years before the revelation of Harry Potter wherein witches carry ruler-like things called wands that might’ve made the name unsuitable. She also knew how to fold origami swans with a blade-sharp edge and tear pages out of her notebook without ripping out that bit at the end. We were always in awe – especially me (derpina) with a wad of ‘swan’ that looked like it was chewed on – because none of it was brain surgery and everyone technically knew how to fold a sailing boat by the 5th grade. Being in the Hermès Atelier Sacs reminded me of her, [...]

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Wax-coated jacket that memorizes every crease Braille studios in Dalston I remember, this was the day I was contemplating being subhuman and staying in bed with dirty hair instead of going out to visit Ben & Sam of Braille. Time and time again I keep having to remind myself that this blog is not a platform where I report on the latest collection of brands, and especially not menswear because don’t we all just pretend to have boyfriends to cover up the fact that we’re social outcasts? Ok maybe that’s just me. Also frankly, I don’t get paid skittles to spend hours travelling to press events and then struggling to write things up. But whad’ya know, I visited Braille that day and I had to eat my words. I realised that, even if I were to visit a studio producing hacksaws and lawnmowers, if it told a good visual story [...]

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Lookbook images taken from Flik Hall This is the best bit really, of blogging I mean. Invitations to lush events and goodies in Fed-ex envelops… yes, it’s all very nice and feeds the gluttony plump but if I can’t even find time to do DIY tutorials in hope that you, readers, don’t leave empty handed, then I want to shove amazing talent like this in your pocket before you go. I haven’t necessarily unearthed Flik Hall – evidently she’s been at large since AW10 – but then again I live under a rock (shaped like a duvet). Her studio in Hackney Wick was foamclad, both on the singlepane windows and her AW11 collection – first seemed to me as an alternative punk reference, it turns out the philosophy of her designs ran deeper than simple textural bling. “The Ghost in the Machine” ideas initially transpired from looking into the realms [...]

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CSM White Show; Beaded tights – DIY Question, what would you do with 2 metres of felt and cotton? My first DIY instinct would tell me to lay the felt sheet flat on the floor, then lie down and the pull the cotton sheet on as blanket. OK, that’s probably the flu residue talking. This CSM White Show was the end product of this equation= [(2m felt + 2m cotton + 5 weeks) - sleep] x pixiedust. Every year, First Year CSM Fashion Design students collaborate with its own Fashion Communication students to put on a full-scale runway show. I’d agreed to ‘model’ for Emily this time, and therefore got tossed into this lovely mess. 150 models, or should we say ‘doing-friend-a-favour’ models, had to accept there were to be only one bagel and banana per person throughout the 5 hour wait, and those unlucky few had to remain standing [...]

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