Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: Fashion, Uncategorized

Stuart Trevor Launches Customised Vintage Collection at London Fashion Week

I’ve been friends with Stuart Trevor for a few years now and knowing that if he says he’s up to something, it’s most definitely looking out for, has become one of my spidey-senses.
So, if the name sounds familiar it’s because it most definitely is. As the founder of All Saints (the clothing brand not the band), Trevor has been in the fashion industry for certainly as long as I can remember. From the first time he put a vintage tailor’s label into a machine washed leather jacket, he determined his signature style; modern vintage.
With dalliances with Reiss, Immortal and even Leon (the food chain) under his belt, it was only a matter of time before we saw Stuart Trevor the man, become Stuart Trevor the brand. His ideas are simplistic but super effective and they gather pace quickly, in essence, Trevor has an idea and it hits reality at the speed of light.
With this latest self titled brand, Trevor takes genuine vintage pieces, mostly military, and furnishes them with either hand painted designs using local artists (in this case it’s the artist Timothy Midnight and his Cats Who…. Collection), or picks them apart and introduces new and contradictory fabrics such as a military shirt with a lace back, or a flight suit with that now infamous tailors label. Whilst his previous offerings have been in high end high street fashion, think accessible luxury that everyone had to have a piece of; the new Stuart Trevor brand sits somewhere between high street and just out of reach for mere mortals.
The pieces are all numbered and produced in small batches in order to retain their uniqueness, but also to cut down on fibre miles and environmental costs associated with producing huge, twice yearly collections. The collection is currently in production, during London Fashion Week we attended a storehouse type presentation and live photoshoot showcasing the completed works on which the rest of the collection will be based. I’ve already put my name down for some painted Cats denim and a flight suit….
Categories: Fashion

PRITCH London Divine Beings London Fashion Week

With London Fashion Week about to kick off for another season there are always a few pre-season openers that warm up show season nicely.  We all know that New York Fashion Week isn’t what it used to be and with many of us no longer even optioning it as freelancers since the division of Fashion Month and instead opting for season openers like these instead, which give us an insight into Fashion Week on our home turf ahead of time.

Earlier this week PRITCH London gave us just that.  The invite said simply ‘Divine Beings’ with a nod to Greek mythology in its illustration and its evening slot and dreamy church location hinted its opulence.

Pixie tenenbaum holds up the invite to the PRITCH London SS20 runway show pre-London Fashion Week in September 2019

PRITCH London is a brand known for its non-conformist luxury and distinctive use of sustainable leather, something that they’ve worked hard to source.  With Divine Beings, PRITCH London aim to elevate the wearer to divine, almost god-like status – translating the power of ancient Greek mythology through striking silhouettes completely unexpected and seemingly impossible in a fabric as unyielding as leather.

The story behind this vibrant collection comes from designer Federica Braghieri’s passion and desire to illuminate the more obscure Greek goddesses who are more often historically overlooked, or misrepresented, in favour of more serene, quieter beings.

“Hecate, the three headed goddess of magic and the night, known for her ability to see past, present and future, is depicted more rarely than the gentler Aphrodite or Athena, but for us this divine being represents the multifarious expression of the collection.”

Historically depicted carrying flaming torches through treacherous night journeys, the colour palette of the Divine Beings collection reflects the mysterious tales of the goddess Hecate.   Red, yellow and copper intertwine with black and grey through various leather weaving and pleating techniques developed by Madara Rozensteina to create an almost water like texture, the garments themselves flow softly on the runway and it’s only on close inspection that they appear heavy as leather is.

There’s a cute little use of fuzzy felt type faux fur early in the show (London Fashion Week has been fully fur free for a few years now), which gives a nod to the season we’re actually in as well as some Spring Summer 20 forecasting which is real nice – perhaps a glance into the future of a new type of co-ed show?

Either way, I’m a sucker for leather and PRITCH London definitely know how to work with it.  From those tight little box pleats that don’t cram in extra weight – something that’s hard to achieve with a heavy fabric, right through to those fit and flare body harnessed blazers; suffice to say, PRITCH London delivers eloquence whilst challenging the fashion status quo.  Divine Beings is a real celebration of non-conformist skill and craftsmanship that deserves to be appreciated up close.

Pixie

Categories: Fashion, Uncategorized

Winchester School of Art Graduate Runway Show

The Winchester School of Art is proud to be one of the UK’s leading art and design institutions and part of the world renowned University of Southampton.  An international centre for ideas and innovation, they have a history which spans almost 150 years.  Ranked among the top 1% of universities worldwide, the University of Southampton is recognised as a global centre for excellence in research and education. Their reputation, which is reflected in their UK and international league table rankings, is built on a long history of world-changing achievements.  96% of graduates go straight into employment or further study, over 75% of which is graduate level (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, 2015/16), now those are some impressive stats.

The Programme for Fashion & Textile Design at Winchester School of Art is alway one that produces talented graduates and alumni – it’s over-subscription reflects that.  This year, twenty out of their fifty students were selected to showcase their graduate collections at a show following Graduate Fashion Week, hand picked by a panel consisting of Cozette McCreery, Sibling, Clare Copland, Production Element, Sophia Malig, By Walid, Lisa Burn-Hunter, WSA Knitwear Tutor and Cecilia Langemar MA RCA, Programme Leader Fashion & Textile Design for Winchester School of Art.

“This was my first time on the WSA panel, I didn’t know much about the institute which sounds bad but we can be so lazy when based in central London that we often don’t look beyond what we already know. I was intrigued to see what the students had to offer. The freedom given to them in comparison to other universities is clear. When actually selecting from the 50 students I have to go for my gut reaction. There were quite a few collections that honestly, I loved instantaneously so that was easy. Others I felt had a place because they looked cohesive and a few where the student had obviously had fun with their ideas and offered real show-pieces. You must take into consideration the flow of the final running order and what will make a good show a GREAT one. This sometimes means that the more accomplished, yet quieter collections don’t get to catwalk but having an exciting catwalk creates a buzz for everyone so it’s important to show the really visual looks as an introduction to the overall output of the student’s work”.  Cozette McCreery, Sibling.

As far as Fashion design courses in the UK go, there are a few which stand out as amongst the best.  One of those is right here in the North East in the form of Northumbria University and amongst the others is Winchester School of Arts.  The institute prides itself on producing highly creative, skilled and hands on design graduates suitable for a range of positions within the Fashion Industry upon completion of their degree course.

Each year graduates take up roles in prestigious companies internationally and in the UK.  The 2018 show presented pieces from: Sofi Lever; Ning Kang; Abigail Skrentny; Grace Haggerty; Jasmine Lynch; Isabella del Zoppo; Becky Chandler; Lauren Sampson; Ashleigh Cameron; Holly Baxter; Zoe Lyne; Madison Weight; Evie Knott; Rui Cheng; Ezgi Gunay; Jessye Bolton; Hannah Franks; Chiara Bradfield; Yuxin Li and Ruje Aktar to an audience of super cool peeps including myself, who were engaged throughout.  It’s easy to forget that these designers are graduates when you’re watching the show.  From the production, to the casting and right through to the quality of the design and manufacture of each garment, the standard is as you would expect from London Fashion Week.  It’s undoubtable that we’ll see some of these designers showing full collections on the runways of fashion Scout in the coming years.

A further ten students were selected to present one complete mannequin outfit The Vinyl Factory as part of an innovative display of fashion design techniques: Charlotte Oliver; Courtney Wheeler; Yaming Zhang; Elena Hillier; Diva de Sa Menezes; Claudia Friel; Evie Cox; Anna Bateman; Maddy Page and Ellie Biggs made up the cohort.

“The panel select the students based on originality, creativity, professional execution and finish, silhouettes and colour story, level of pattern cutting and construction, ‘catwalkability’ and wow factor and a sense of a fully formed coherent collection. WSA BA Students are very able designers in terms of creative concepts realised to a professional standard in terms of make and finish. Most of our students progress into industry straight away after the BA course into a range of companies and studios, from Alexander McQueen and Victoria Beckham to Asos and Topshop. Some of the fabrications this year have been outstanding from both the Fashion and Knitwear students with some handmade woven leather fabrics, creative hand embroidery and embellishment and some innovative knitted fabrics with stunning yarn combinations”.

Cecilia Langemar MA RCA, Programme Leader Fashion & Textile Design for Winchester School of Art

 

Categories: Fashion, Models, Uncategorized

Can the iPhone 8 Plus Cut it as a Camera?

I was recently set a task by Three (that’s the phone peeps), to capture some awesome fashion pictures on the iPhone 8 Plus.  With my task and a little bit of guidance pre-shoot, I decided there was no better place than London Fashion Week for the job.

Ok, first things first, this phone is a little bigger than I’m used to.  It’s nice and light and if you’re a pre-gen 8 iPhone user you may or may not know about the Portrait feature within the camera options.  Basically, you know those photos you see on every Bloggers Insta feed where the product in the font of the shot is crisp and clear but the background is blurred?  That’s been shot on Portrait mode and it’s the feature you never knew you couldn’t live without.  It was first introduced on the iPhone 7 Plus and further refined for the 8 Plus and X models, it allows you to shoot in incredible detail from further away.

So, the aesthetic of the phone is like any standard iPhone, central Home button at the bottom with fingerprint or passcode unlock feature, all pretty standard.  The camera is where this phone really shines, the True Tone technology automatically adjusts white balance to match the light around you and the colour vibrancy is the best in the industry.  Fact.

So what’s so special about the camera on the iPhone 8 Plus?

Well, this one has a more advanced 12MP camera than previous iPhones.  The sensor is bigger and faster and the colour is deeper and more vibrant.  Throw in optical image stabilisation for both still photos and videos and you’re looking at something that’s been designed to rival a DSLR.  If you use the zoom function on your cellphone camera then you’re probably already aware that the quality diminishes drastically when you start zooming in, with iPhone 8 Plus, the wide‑angle and telephoto lenses on iPhone 8 Plus enable optical zoom, as well as digital zoom of up to 10x for photos and 6x for videos meaning that you can get in closer without sacrificing quality.  I’ve tried it and it’s not an overstatement.

Where to shoot my iPhone 8 Plus Photo Challenge

I took the iPhone 8 Plus to the FW18 season of London Fashion Week and had to plan how to complete my photo challenge.  I wanted to make sure I could get some really awesome photos that focussed on and showcased the pieces in each collection without the distractions of audience etc. so that I could really showcase the qualities of this cellphone camera.  The best place to do this?  In fashion presentations – the perfect opportunity to showcase what this nifty (not so) little iPhone can do.  Presentations allow you to get up close and personal with the garments and capture every tiny little detail, provided your equipment is up to the job of course.

How to use the iPhone 8 Plus as a Camera

Ok, the idea of this project was to show you that the iPhone 8 Plus can be a great alternative to carrying around a DSLR camera.  Yes, a DSLR will give you the most crisp pictures you can imagine with exceptional depth of field, but, if like me, you’re an out of towner attempting to travel light and post quickly, sometimes a cellphone is just the best option out there.  with the iphone 8 Plus it’s a simple as opening the camera, pointing and shooting.  There’s no set up required, no apps needed and the focus is automatic, allowing you to select the part of the image that you want to be the central point.  Clever stuff.

Shooting with the iPhone 8 Plus

Ok so it’s a pretty big phone, we know that.  If you’re already in Camp Apple then you’ll be familiar with phones of this size as it’s the same as the 6 and 7 Plus models.  It’s uber light which means it’s pretty easy to just whip out and shoot with.  One thing to note is that because it’s pretty big, shooting is probably a two handed job.  It’s very responsive, once you’ve selected something to capture there’s an on screen option to focus available light on your chosen target, or leave the phone to adjust automatically, then you simply click.  It can handle multiple frames (non-burst) in quick repetition and doesn’t distort image quality in doing so, meaning that shooting runway shows was a breeze too.  In the past I’ve struggled to capture decent runway images as cellphone cameras haven’t been so great with multiple things moving in one frame.  That is until now.

Show me the images man!

Ok, ok, so, at London Fashion Week presentations take place in a variety of locations, some are super bright and lit for press, others are in low light or natural light.  The iPhone 8 Plus managed well in all of those situations.  In low light it photographs “as seen” meaning you see on camera, what you see in real live and then need to manually adjust which is super simples.  I adjust using the functionality within the iPhones own photo viewer but Lightroom is pretty good too if you can get to grips with all of the different settings.  I didn’t plan for that and because of the rate of image turnover at London Fashion Week, I stuck with what I know which worked really well.

Paul Costelloe FW18
Merchant Archive FW18
Merchant Archive FW18
Alexander White FW18
Minki FW18

You can see the different lighting situation and how the phone camera has managed to pin pont detail with in each capture.  From the wet look hair in the Minki Presentation, to the blanket skirt colour spot detail at Merchant Archive, for a cellphone, you’ve got to admit, that’s pretty damn good.  So, how would it cope with multiple moving targets, say on a runway?

Fortie Label FW17
Paul Costelloe FW17
Malan Breton FW17
Starsica FW17
Fortie Label FW17
Starsica FW18

These motion stills were all taken from varying distances, some using the zoom function which didn’t appear to distort the images.

What will it cost me?

It’s an iPhone, you already know it’s not going to be cheap.  The good news is that it’s not the top of the range iPhone, that honour goes (at the time of writing) to the all singing, all dancing iPhone X.  The iPhone 8 Plus comes in two capacities: 64gb and 256gb which retail at £799 and £949 respectively.  If you’re browsing the Apple website and thinking, “but the non plus version of the iPhone 8 is a bit cheaper, I’ll go for that”, DON’T.  The regular iPhone 8 model doesn’t come with the same camera functionality, Apple use that extra handset size to pack in a double lens feature that offers that Portrait mode functionality and crisp zoom.  Trust me, if you’re investing, opt for the Plus.

Yes, it’s a lot of money, but the chances are you drop that kind of money on a cellphone regardless.  Plus, if you’re a Blogger who doesn’t want to have to carry a camera around on quick shot assignments, particularly at London Fashion Week where there are multiple shows each day, all over the city, then the iPhone 8 Plus from Three might just be your new best friend.  You’re welcome.

 

Categories: Fashion

Paul Costelloe FW18 at London Fashion Week

More and more of the on-schedule designers are going off-piste for their Fashion Month shows.  As Anna Wintour recently said in a video editorial for Vogue Runway: “No longer are we seeing a schlep of anonymous, sad looking models walking the runway in the standard white box, we’re being invited into restaurants, and to new and exciting venues like the Yves Saint Laurent show that took place by the Eiffel Tower on a beautiful evening”.  It’s true Voyeurs, the Karl Lagerfeld effect has massively influenced show season and for us to sit up and take notice, the show itself needs to be as spectacular as the garments we’re there to view.

For FW18 London picked up the baton from a super boring New York Fashion Week and breathed into it new life.  From the emerging talent at Fashion Scout, to the more established on and off schedule houses, London Fashion Week’s FW18 season packed a real punch and with it, came an uplifted, happier vibe.  From the colour and texture driven presentations at Alexander White and Merchant Archive, to the spooky fun Starsica runway show that took a huge step away from the norm cementing it as one of the most memorable of the season, London Fashion Week brought Fashion Month to life.

It should come as no surprise then, that London’s patriarch of fashion, Paul Costelloe, put on a runway show, presentation and live performance rolled into one for FW18 that brought a little Parisian chic to the UK capital.  Costelloe is to London Fashion Week what Lagerfeld is to Paris Fashion Week.  A stalwart and powerhouse who evolves with each season, reacting to not just expectations in fashion, but also sustainability, technology and the time in which we live.  For FW18, the house of Paul Costelloe invited a select group of the global fashion media and buyers into the Waldorf Hotel for a breathtaking show which saw the typical Costelloe textures injected with a youthful edge.

Secretly Livid

I arrived at the show at The Waldorf Hotel on the wettest day of Fashion Week.  Not only that, but moments before entering the hotel I was covered head to foot in puddle juice after a truck saw a roadside opportunity not to be missed.  I was wet and pissed off Voyeurs, and looked like crap.  I spent about three minutes attempting to dry my hair under a hand dryer only to discover that it looked worse than when it was drenched with London puddle and after booking an emergency blowdry at SHOW Beauty I thought fuck it, I’m going in….

I won’t say I wasn’t huffy, I was, and there’s photographic evidence to support that.  But like a pro, I took my seat and waited to see what Paul Costelloe had in store for us.

Paul Costelloe FW18

The co-ed collection from the fashion giant is a subtle reflection on an Irish heritage of leaving homelands in search of new life and new dreams, disembarking from the landing stage of Ellis island, ready to join millions of others in search of a new identity and creating a culture of endless diversity.

Key pieces in the collection feature heavy plaid tweeds from Magee of Ireland’s County Donegal alongside Costelloe’s signature tailoring.  The British and Irish narrative is worked into full length coats and high waisted trousers which echo that American aesthetic of the 50’s.  Distressed jacquards from Lanificio di Sordevolo in the Italian province of Biella compliment this International offering.  The room lends itself perfectly to the show in this format, models walk the runway four at a time in choreographed steps in order to give a fully immersive view of each piece.  In a London Fashion Week first, the whole event was filmed and broadcast via Insta360 allowing the viewer into the show as if they were right there in the audience.

The custom prints featured in the show came from second generation Costelloe by way of William Costelloe Design, making it feel like we were experiencing something truly special.  If you’re a fan of Costelloe’s work, you’ll know that texture is a huge feature, often used as a total juxtaposition throughout his body of work, FW18 saw heavy tweed paired with polished latex and leather to create a new branch of Costelloe DNA.  As a live band played, the looks kept coming and once the show was over, guests were invited back into the room for an informal presentation.  As far as shows go, this is the most chilled I’ve been to in a long while.  Models came out on to the floor wearing key looks from the collection on rotation and guests we able to touch fabrics and really get up close and personal with the pieces.  Trust me, you’ve never felt a tweed weight like the one on this amazing swing coat, it’s to die for.

Paul Costelloe FW17

As the band played an awesome cover of the Old Crow Medicine Show version of Wagon Wheel, I got a chance to have a little chat with the man himself who paused mid-sentence to yell for the band to “keep playing”.  So what did he tell me?  Well we talked about tartan, heavy denim, Paris and the collection obvs.  But most memorable?  That would be when he told me my eyebrows were “amazing” and left me with the parting words: “Never let anybody tell you to change your eyebrows, seriously, don’t let anybody force you to change them, they’re amazing.” and with that, Paul Costelloe danced away into the crowd…

Pixie x