Hot off the Row

I've just got in some new cloth from the kind people at Holland & Sherry of Savile Row.  Here you can see some beautiful dark green cotton velvet, a blue and black 100% wool Herringbone, a grey and red Donegal tweed and a 100% worsted wool purple and white Herringbone.

This is all for a very exciting project that I am working on.  More details on that will be coming soon.

Look out winter 2012/13

Last week saw the catwalks of Milan light up again with some magnificent shows from the likes of Prada, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana and Alexander McQueen for their menswear fall 2012/13 collections.  So there will be some trends to look out for next winter.  

                          Gucci                                                                           Gucci


There were a trends of high gauges, double breasted, kneelength coats, drain pipe trousers and overall well fitted garments.  There were some beatiful colour palletes along with black that constited of deep rich colours including turquoise, burgundy, yellow, red, navy and puple.  

                          Alexander McQueen                                               Gucci

                         Gucci                                                              Dolce and Gabbana


Mix these with multi tonal fabrics including floral and camouflage.  Also a variant of textures and fabrics including velvets, furs, leathers, wool, tweeds, silks, satins, patent leather and sequins.  Details and embellishments included gold zips fastenings and embroidery.

                                     
                          Dolce and Gabbana                                                Alexander Mqueen                    




A lot had a 19th century decant feel.  So I hate to say I told you so.

                          Alexander McQueen                                                Prada


My favourite shows have to be, Prada with their use of blacks and reds, long coats and fur collars.  Not to mention using some of Hollywoods elite as models including Adrien Brody, Emile Hirsch, Gary Oldman, Jamie Bell, Tim Roth, and William Dafoe.

                          Prada                                                            Dolce and Gabbana


My other favourite show was Dolce and Gabbana with the shear gravitas of the show its self and the beautifully embroidered jackets and capes.

Tattoos and Tailoring

Zombie Boy


Rick Genest (AKA ZOMBIE BOY) has had a real life rags to riches tail.  After leaving high school at 17 he immersed himself in the underground punk rock scene in Montreal and was homeless and living in abandoned buildings.  He got his first tattoo at 16 which was a a skull and crossbones on his left shoulder.  By 19 he was committed to his full body tattoo project and stayed loyal to Montreal artist Frank Lewis, who designed the majority of his body over the next six years.  

In early January 2011, he was spotted on a Facebook page by a one Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga’s personal stylist and the creative director of the legendary Paris based fashion house Theirry Mugler.  Formichetti flew to Montreal to meet Genest to complete an extensive photo and video shoot for Thierry Mugler’s fall 2011 campaign. The two clicked instantly and Formichetti invited Genest to Paris to model in the Mugler men’s fashion show. It was the first time Rick had ever travelled outside Canada, and incidentally his first time on a plane. Acting as his mentor of sorts, Formichetti then cast Genest in his biggest role to date; a pronounced cameo in Lady Gaga’s video ‘Born This Way’ filmed in New York City.


His relationship with Formichetti has clearly been a boon for his career, and has since seen him pose for such magazines as GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue Hommes Japan, as well as a collaboration with the juggernaut of the fashion photography world – the renowned —L’Enfant terrible Terry Richardson.

Tuxedo 'the aftermath'

Following on from a previous post regarding a project I did with London College of Fashion and the Savile Row tailors Henry Poole in which I reinvented the tuxedo for the 21st Century.  The project has now taken on a life of its own and has started to snow ball.  After an initial photo shoot in Paris and the launch party at Quintessentially (the London concierge service) the tuxedo that I made along with others and showcase heritage pieces from renowned Tuxedo wearers Frank Sinatra and Truman Capote went to a pop-up exhibition in the Burlington Arcade and Harrods.


Other VIP stars who have been shot in their favourite tuxedos, with an accompanying vignette outlining what makes this distinctive item of clothing so iconic, include supermodel Marie Helvin, musician Mr Hudson, Gordon Richardson (Topman) and jeweller Robert Tateossian.


In September 2011 the tuxedo was flown out to New York where it went on exhibition in the Tuxedo Park Historical Society and I was lucky enough to be flown out with it to attend the Tuxedo Park Autumn Ball  which was sponsored by Giorgio Armani. But more on this later.


There is now talk of the exhibition going on to Brazil, Hong Kong and China.


So I like to take this opportunity to thank a everybody who was involved in the project;


My tutors Christopher Stevens,Steven Dell and Alan Cannon-Jones.  Roma Vaccaro and Ben Whyman for managing and curating.  Everyone at London College of Fashion.  The Gentleman from Henry Poole, Angus and Simon Cundey, Alex cooke and Craig featherstone.  Frederic Dormeuil and Patrick Bunting from Dormeuil for there kind fabric sponsorship.  Deborah Harmon and everyone at Tuxedo Park.  The kind people at the V&A for letting us into there archives. Finally just everyone who had input to this project without who all of this would not be possible.


I now look forward to getting my tuxedo back so I can wear it

Me, David Adams & model Olivia Inge 

Gordon Richardson

Harold Tillman, CBE

Marie Helvin

Mr Hudson

Robert Tateossian

Tuxedo

Happy Anniversary

Last year was the 150th anniversary of the little black jacket.  A resident of Tuxedo Park New York, James Brown Potter vacation in England and were introduce to the then Price of Wales who later became King Edward VII,  After asking advice on Formal dress Mr Potter went to Henry Poole & Co of Savile Row wear he was fitted a short black black jacket with no tails.  Once taken back to the United States and worn for the first time at formal events it was to be forever know as the 'tuxedo'.

To celebrate this iconic garment I teamed up with Henry Poole in a project to reinvent to tuxedo for the modern gentleman.  The inspirations for my tuxedo have came from looking at pre and post its invention. After doing my initial research on the Tuxedo and it origins, the fact that it derived from the tail coat and how it has evolved into the modern dinner jacket we all know today, I started to play around with period looks but with modern cuts.  I have taken inspiration from all eras from 17^th century brocade and 19^th century British Regency to Dickinson and the modern catwalk.  I wanted to take the best parts of these eras as well as a mix of dinner jacket, frock coat, tail coat, dressing gown, smoking jacket and create something new with a traditional beauty.  Together with Dormeuil fabric I used brocade silks, jacquards, satins to craft an outfit that is splendiferous, I want it to be lavish and decadent, and I want the wearer to feel like a king.

If the dress coat could be described as the most elegant of nineteenth century male attire, then the frock coat must be the most dignified. Combined with the top hat, the general effect was very impressive.

From a technical point of view, the frock coat follows a similar development to the dress coat. The standard pattern has a panel at the front (double-breasted), a waist seam (I 820s) and - by 1840 — it  included the sidebody panel. Waist lines were raised or lowered and sleeve styles changed according to prevailing fashion. There were also variations in the coat length.

Apart from changes in the style of collar and lapel, the most notable difference in the frock coat from one period to another was in the style of the skirt. This ranged from being very full and flared in the earlier period to hanging straight with very little fullness from 1880 to 1900.

Towards the end of the century the frock coat was mainly replaced by the morning coat.

My Jacket at a photo shoot in Paris

and at the launch party at Quintessentially, London.

Wes Anderson

I am thoroughly looking forward to Wes Andersons new film 'Moonrise Kingdom'.  An all star cast about a pair of lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.  This film is from the same creative mind that brought us the likes of Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited and Fantasic Mr Fox.
Being a stylish gent himself there is always attention to detail in the fashion and costume in his films and there is always some great tailoring,  I especial like the colour pallets used in the whole of The Royal Tenenbaums.

You can certainly see his inspiration for Fantastic Mr Fox.

Timothy Everest by Joshua Osborne

Video

While I was interning at Timothy Everest I got to be a part of this video made by student Joshua Osborne.