X-Factor group JLS were recently seen sporting exclusive RMC Martin Ksohoh “UNEVERTRYUNEVERKNOW” t-shirts.
JLS – Jack the Lads Swing are made up of Aston Merrygold age 20, Jonathon Gill age 21, Oriste Williams age 21 and Marvin Humes age 23.
During their X-Factor audition Louis Walsh compared them to Boyz II Men, Simon Cowell said he loved their voices Dannii Minogue said she loved their vocals and Cheryl Cole said she loved everything about them.
Tour de Green? Savile Row tailor Richard James has teamed up with British bicycle makers Condor on a new deluxe, state of the art bicycle. City gents who prefer to take the green route to work, can now cycle in style. Richard James is one of the newest but also most coveted tailors on the Savile Row block, having set up only a decade and a half go. Yet his loyal celebrity following which includes Daniel Craig, David Beckham and Hugh Grant give credence to a label that has set the benchmark for both modern tailoring and contemporary mensewear.
Adding to his luxury merchandise at his Clifford Street boutique, the bike comes in James’ store colours of ebony and gold and features a super-lightweight woven carbon-fibre frame, Royce hugs and a laser-edged black Izumi track chainset.
Condor is known for its craftsmenship and innovation and the bespoke bike is the ultimate urban get-about if you can afford it at GBP 4,000.
The high fashion green man will just need a pair of NOHARM shoes to finish the stylish environmental look.
Both Marni and Moncler build on the momentum of ethical fashion and provide hope to poor children in deprived countries.
Marni created two special projects called In a World of My Own and Dreams of Growing Up, where children are the artists.
For the first one, kids around the globe were asked to envision themselves in an imaginary world and paint what they saw directly onto 240 cotton shopping bags, which will sell exclusively in Marni boutiques at the end of November for $135.
Marni also selected five of the drawings and printed them on white and gray tank tops and T-shirts for the second part of the initiative.
Rihanna has partnered with Gucci to be the face of their new Tattoo Heart accessories collection, which Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini designed as part of their annual campaign to benefit UNICEF.
“Our relationship with UNICEF is a partnership that I hold very dearly,” said Giannini. “It is an exceptional organization that is able to do so much good in the world. Dedicating a campaign to this partnership is very important to me, and I think Rihanna is perfect for this campaign. Her talent, beauty and optimism perfectly represent the positive attitude that I hope will show in the campaign, which supports a cause we both truly believe in children.”
“I love the idea of a heart being tattooed onto the handbags,” said Giannini. “It’s a permanent mark that you can wear with pride and that stays with you. I think that represents very well what we are doing here. This is not a one-off program, but rather an ongoing commitment to the incredible work that UNICEF is able to achieve.”
Abercrombie & Fitch who are famous in America for their once controversial hiring policies, are now looking to embrace the world with their preppy apparel. Abercrombie & Fitch said it is still on track to open flagships stores around the world including an Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store on the Champs Elysees in Paris in 2011. Abercrombie opened its first overseas store in London last year and opened its first European Hollister Co. mall-based store in a suburb of London last month.
The company said it is on track to open flagship locations around the world in 2009, including debuts of its namesake stores in Copenhagen and Tokyo along with Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie stores in Milan. Also, Abercrombie continues to pursue lease arrangements for additional store locations in Europe and Asia.
“Absolutely water-proof and high technology performance are the two main characteristics of the Paul & Shark Interactive Jacket which is resistant to a 20m column of water (Typhoon 20000). It is multi-functional with an ipod and bluetooth connection. The removable hood is lined in coyote fur. This is ideal for yachting enthusiasts as well as for metropolitan adventurers.”
All the innovation and forwarding thinking expertise and vision we come to associate with Paul & Shark is perhaps called into question by the backward use and anti-ethical inclusion of the coyote fur hood. Shame!
Donatella Versace was back in her element Thursday, overseeing a re-creation of the fashion house’s Milan runway show in the Chinese capital.
Versace spent a day earlier in the week with earthquake survivors in the muddy, remote mountains in Sichuan Province working with the Jet Li One Foundation to raise awareness of the plight of victims. The actor Jet Li and Versace capped off Thursday’s show with a high-energy live auction that raised an additional $100,000 for earthquake relief work.
“What appeals to me is the energy in China, especially in this city Beijing. There are a lot of young people, creative people, a lot of art — it’s very inspiring,” design head and vice president Donatella Versace told Reuters.
“Chinese people like luxury brands,” added Donatella, looking stunning in a flattering, figure-hugging black dress and black stiletto shoes.
Versace displayed its spring/summer 2009 collection at the show, which had previously debuted in Milan, in front of an elite audience of socialites, executives and celebrities, including Chinese and Hollywood action star Jet Li.
Donatella said she would like to make China a regular stop on Versace’s fashion show calendar.
“If the economic crisis permits, yes I’ll come every year,” she told reporters ahead of the show.
“I have to say that doing it here in Beijing has been amazing because of the enthusiasm,” Donatella added. “I think the Chinese people love fashion — that’s what I can feel.”
Farah Trousers & Clothing – The past is the Future?
Ask most British guys who were teenagers in the mid 70’s to early 80’s and a smile creeps upon their faces as they recall their self-conscious years when they were fanatical about detail, obsessed with music and fashion and trying to make the cut in the playground.
From it’s turbulent history after the company started in Texas in the 1920’s to the incredible success of the brand after the introduction into 1970’s Britain, Farah has always been a topic of conversation welcomed by a good chunk of British males and females alike.
At a time when the media was transfixed with the emergence of Punk, the Farah Slack was assimilated by British youth culture when a whole generation of young men – from mods and skins to the Jamaican ‘Stickmen’ – created regional fashion trends. Dressed in smart-casual clothing, the look spread and became firmly entwined within The Casual Scene, based on the Mods notion of secrecy and elitism.
More than 35 years after the brand first landed on the shores of Britain the Farah Slacks & Leisurewear collection has brought the brand back to the foreground. The authenticity of the Farah brand and depth of the available archives have inspired the market once more with the collections from London now available globally with shops stocking the brand from Canada to Japan.
We can all start looking out for the iconic orange tabs again!
The RE:Fashion Awards will take place on the 13th November 2008, celebrating people and organisations who have taken great strides in tackling poverty, healing the environment and changing consumer attitudes towards ethical fashion.
Join Daisy Lowe, Portia Freeman, Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Katharine Hamnett, Pixie Geldof, Leah Weller and a stellar line up of stars at the RE:Fashion Awards which will take place in London on 13th November 2008. The glittering event will see major faces from the fashion world come together to recognise the most significant developments in social and environmental standards in the fashion industry within a decade.
Rogan Gregory, the designer behind Rogan, as well as Loomstate and Edun, defines his new collection as “soulful minimalism.”
“It’s minimalism in the true sense of the word – stark and super simple,” he said in his New York showroom on Wednesday, Nov. 5, during a presentation of his Spring 2009 collection.
“Letting the shape speak for itself, letting the fabric speak for itself,” he said, as he defined his theory of “reductive design.” He’s also experimenting with the combination of two contradictory fabrics, figuring out how to make them work together in a minimal way, such as a heavier peacoat wool combined with a ribbed knit. “If you can pull it off, then its something that people really haven’t seen before,” he said.
“We don’t have the luxury from an economic or ecological standpoint to design whatever we feel like designing,” said Gregory. “We can’t just go out and get something exotic, what’s the point? We have to do something new.”
During a sell-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, on 6th November 08, members of the Reverend Al Green’s band and dancers were seen rocking Red Monkey Jeans on stage. Shown is the Tengu design:
Tengu (Tengu “heavenly dogs”) are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known y?kai (monster-spirits) and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami (revered spirits or gods). Although they take their name from a dog-like Chinese demon (Tiangou), the tengu were originally thought to take the forms of birds of prey, and they are traditionally depicted with both human and avian characteristics. The earliest tengu were pictured with beaks, but this feature has often been humanized as an unnaturally long nose, which today is practically the tengu’s defining characteristic in the popular imagination.
Buddhism long held that the tengu were disruptive demons and harbingers of war. Their image gradually softened, however, into one of protective, if still dangerous, spirits of the mountains and forests. Tengu are associated with the ascetic practice known as Shugend?, and they are usually depicted in the distinctive garb of its followers, the yamabushi
Protective spirits and deities:
tengu mikoshi (portable shrine) in the city of Beppu, ?ita Prefecture, on Ky?sh?. The Shasekish?, a book of Buddhist parables from the Kamakura period, makes a point of distinguishing between good and bad tengu. The book explains that the former are in command of the latter and are the protectors, not opponents, of Buddhism – although the flaw of pride or ambition has caused them to fall onto the demon road, they remain the same basically good, dharma-abiding persons they were in life.
The tengu’s unpleasant image continued to erode in the 17th century. Some stories now presented them as much less malicious, protecting and blessing Buddhist institutions rather than menacing them or setting them on fire. According to a legend in the 18th-century Kaidan Toshiotoko (Kaidan Toshiotoko), a tengu took the form of a yamabushi and faithfully served the abbot of a Zen monastery until the man guessed his attendant’s true form. The tengu’s wings and huge nose then reappeared. The tengu requested a piece of wisdom from his master and left, but he continued, unseen, to provide the monastery with miraculous aid.
Underground fashion once again meets outdoor performance, as style-setter Jeff Griffin’s collaboration with Berghaus continues into its third season. Griffin has reinvented three of performance-brand Berghaus key jackets, adding his unflinching design touches to create statement pieces that are edgy and contemporary.
Griffin is renowned for his individual style, resisting conformity- instead choosing to indulge in expression. Each garment unfolds its own story of detail, shape and fabrication, hand worked and re-invented.
Where Griffin leads the way in fashion, likewise Berghaus has led the way in designing and developing adventurous outdoor gear for the world’s harshest places for over 40 years. Credibility and performance are everything and are weaved into the fabric of each garment. Through the fusion of two brands that respect and embrace extremes, the collaboration products offer a refreshingly new take on outdoor performance wear.
For Autumn Winter ’08 Griffin wanted to create the opposite to the mass Global image of sportswear and create something which is really exclusive. With this in mind we discovered Berghaus is the largest customer of Gore-Tex in Europe and had a fantastic archive of expensive unused Gore-Tex, end of rolls, exclusive colours for experimental mountain projects and different textured face fabrics. We took this idea and made in our studio a couple of recycled samples pinned, stitched and taped, this then went to the Berghaus lab in Sunderland. These jackets are a great mix of hand made, high technology and design including the use of recycled materials, which makes sense, as both Griffin and Berghaus share a strong view point on the environment.
The outcome…. this exclusive Elysian with its Gore-Tex pro shell and new design mountaineering detailing, including stretch panels for movement, detachable hood with mouth piece and the seaming which is highlighted by it’s use of paneling, the use of colours that wouldn’t normally sit together have come from the Berghaus stock warehouse adding extra interest. This co-lab is exclusive to Japan, and the Griffin website, it comes in two colourways, the range of greys and the electric option.
The post inaugural collaboration between Levi Strauss and artist Damien Hirst is here. The Levi’s Brand announced the launch of Damien Hirst X Levi’s – a limited-edition collection designed with the celebrated British artist. The 12-piece Damien Hirst X Levi’s Collection revolves around three key themes of Damien Hirst’s body of work – the skull, spots and butterfly. Jeans retail for about GBP150, with T-shirts at GBP55.
Levi’s 501 jeans in black and over-dye blue are teamed with white, black and deep purple rock-inspired T-shirts emblazoned with iconic Hirst imagery – butterflies, dots and skulls. Equally striking, an image blending Hirst’s black and white portrait with a skull, also appears on a white T-shirt. A tough denim and leather jacket completes the look. Referencing his famous Spin paintings, a T-shirt, a hoodie, a jacket and slim jeans for girls take on a psychedelic kaleidoscope of primary colors. Throughout the collection, the Levi’s logo is set in a multi-colored dot reminiscent of stained glass – a reference to Hirst’s recent work.
“I love the idea of art you can wear,” said Damien Hirst with regards to his ongoing work with the Levi’s brand.
“Pablo Picasso is credited with being the first major artist to wear Levi’s 501 jeans as his creative uniform, but Jackson Pollock made dark, paint-splattered 501 jeans the effigy of uncompromising creativity,” said Agnes Tann, strategic brand planning director for the Levi’s brand, Asia Pacific Division based in Singapore.
“World renowned artists from Peter Blake and Max Ernst to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol all adopted the Levi’s jeans as their favorite jeans. So, we are naturally thrilled and honored to have a creative genius like Damien Hirst bring his unique perspective to our iconic 501 jeans and the range of unique looks created for this collection.”
The collection will be selectively distributed in stores worldwide, such as Milan’s 10 Corso Como fashion boutique and a few Levi’s flagships, including the recently renovated Berlin store.
Excerpts from Professor Karl’s handwritten fashion manifesto:
• “There is a strange and invisible borderline when fashion is not only fashion, but becomes the most evident and most easily visible expression of an area.”
• “Fashion as history is beyond fashion, and it is not only limited to clothes.”
• “It is difficult to imagine today that people who shaped the fashion of the first 50 years of the 20th century never had an exhibition in a great museum during their lifetime….Designers (called “couturieres”) were happy to dress people (mostly women of society). They designed with the icons of their times in mind — before that word was used as we use it today. They had muses then….For Chanel, it was simpler. She was only her own inspiration (what I admire).
• “The face of fashion is now in the hands of a small group of big companies and they often own several important and influential fashion brands. They also help to make it possible for museums to stage important shows.”
• “Fashion is today also about big shows like Hollywood productions. In the past, designers made fashion history by dressing people who had a real life in those clothes. We should learn a lot from that. Red carpet (another invention of our times) helps to distort fashion by giving it a fake and too glamorous face.”
• “The great designers of the past were certainly not humble people, but they worked in the days before media buzz. What helps most of us a lot in a way, promotion (and self-promotion), did not exist before. It’s also something that makes our approach to fashion different (too different?). But what will survive from all that?”
• “Fashion is about the harmony between utility and beauty. But the sense of beauty in fashion changes quickly — nearly as quickly as fashion itself. Some people tell us that utility is itself the essence of beauty. That may be OK for sportswear (such an important part of fashion today and not always the best). I think there has to be another dimension to it, and Harold is our visionaire in that area. You don’t design a dress only because it’s easy to wear. It should be — but that reason alone could make fashion a bore.
• “A new fashion can appear having the same origins in inspiration and admiration in the past of fashion. The danger is for us designers to be too exposed to the seduction of the past.”
• “It is difficult to work out your own vision of fashion without being haunted by the beauty of the work of the people before us — even if they were also not immune to all kind of influences and inspirations to achieve a strong vision and a unique style.”