Issue 2

Letter From The Editor

Thankyou for taking time to look at our second issue of our magazine blog. I think you will find that this weeks post issue will have a summer feel to it, helping you our reader to stay stylish of your holidays. Hope you enjoy.

By Sean Taylorson

Men's Wear

Swim wear

Summer is here... finally. I am writing to you from sunny Cornwall. I have seen some swim wear shockers, especially the man who wore his boxers to the beach. Where we are staying it is a definite outdoor culture with surfers everywhere. The surfers wear the wetsuits, for in England we don’t have warm seas. When they have finished surfing they all get out their very on trend swim wear.

There is a definite lack in range of men’s swim wear especially when most of it is a fashion crime, like the infamous Speedos. I recommend the ‘short shorts’ they are very on trend and you can get them in a varied amount of colours. They are very 80’s style and are also available in a two tone colour. My favourite colour is the coral pink but if you disagree there are other colours like reds, blues and burgundy colours.

The long swim shorts are a has-been in my opinion. It may be alright if you live in California or Australia, where fashion is behind the current times in Britain. The Speedos are terrible, but if you fancy scaring away the ladies from the beach go ahead.

Woman's Wear

Summer on the beach

Summer has finally come after a spell of miserable typical British weather. With this, swim suits have started making appearances around Britain. The swim suits are very in so hang up that bikini and get out your swim suit. The only problem with these is the horrible tan lines you will encounter, but to be honest what kind of tan are you expecting in Britain!

swim suit from American Apparel

http://store.americanapparel.co.uk/

What you will find is there are a lot of colourful printed swimsuits. Don’t be fooled into thinking you have to buy one of these colourful ones for a block coloured swimsuit can scream sexy. My favourite block coloured swim wear is the coral pink, for it’s bright and easy on the eye.  With the swimsuits if you consider yourself a retro girl you can wear the bright yellow and green swimsuits or the classic Baywatch red from the notorious 80’s.

From left TopShop swimsuit - http://www.topshop.com/
American Apprel - http://store.americanapparel.co.uk/

The printed swim suits tend to depict beautiful scenery, animal faces or a lovely floral pattern. Personally not a fan of the animal ones for most of them are of a tigers face and let’s face it felines just don’t like water! The floral patterns say elegant whereas the scenery say cool. If the swim suit depicted a urban scene that would contrast with the natural surroundings of the beach which isn’t necessarily a good thing. This swim suit maybe should be used for one of your penthouse pool-side parties? If you’re wealthy enough... I wish!

I don’t feel that we will be seeing any of these swim suits making an appearance at the London 2012 volleyball. I think they will be sticking to the typical bikini with the very unflattering bikini tops... but we can live in hope.

By Sean Taylorson

 

Our Own Designer Annie Oakes & Fashion Photography

Annie Oakes Designs & Peter May Photography

This week we are combining our Photography and our own designer for they have collaborated together for a fashion shoot in Manchester. 

Fashion is full of collaborations. Whether it’s Matthew Williamson collaborating with Debenhams to do a Womenswear collection, or David Beckham collaborating with H&M for his new Men’s ‘Bodywear’ Underwear…powerful figures are pairing up all over the place! The first is an example of a designer merging with a well-known department store to accommodate more affordable designer-named clothes. The latter is a well-known name, whether it’s in the sporting or celebrity world, joining with a popular high-street brand. However, fashion collaborations happen in many more specialities than just the clothing design aspect. Beauty also comes into fashion & how does the audience even view this fashion? Through the eyes of the media…through their photographs.

Through my experience in the fashion industry so far, I have already encountered a number of different specialities & various characters along with them. One of my most valuable contacts is with a Photographer featured in this issue of FFT…Peter May. I met him at the beginning of university, through friends of friends. And you know what they say…it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know. When I found out that he does photography as a hobby alongside his Geography degree I decided to snap up this opportunity & ask him to photograph some of my fashion designs. Previously I have dabbled in fashion photography, through the need of final images of my pieces. However, having a photographer’s eye that has a fresh view of the situation, instead of the designer’s familiar view, is refreshing & very valuable.

Since my collaboration with him, he has also helped my Fashion degree class out, capturing our final project & years’ shows. Peter May’s photographs featured in this issue of FFT include my designs that took part in some of these shows. There is an example of Menswear & Womenswear in these photographs, so here is a bit about them…

My Womenswear piece appears quite unisex due to its linear features & minimalistic style. It was inspired by classic shirts, but the aim was to put a modern Autumn/Winter spin on it. I chose a two-toned felt material to reflect the features on a shirt, like defining the collar & oversized cuffs. I further accentuated certain sections with complementary colours, using flashes of orange in hidden panels & stitched detail, combined with strips of electric blue.

My Menswear outfit was inspired by the air & space hall at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It is an amazingly large warehouse including all types of flying extravaganzas to gain testosterone-fuelled inspiration from! I combined textures of knitwear & leather to reflect the patch-worked style of aeroplanes and complemented them with strong lines inspired by the movement of wings & propellers. This was my first attempt at making & creating knitwear [using a knitting machine as opposed to hand-knitting little squares!] so I decided to go the whole way by creating my own pattern & exaggerating the sleeves, which proved rather challenging but definitely rewarding.

I love using large pattern pieces that wrap around & work with the body to create a statement piece. My modernised ‘shirt’ & Menswear overcoat are examples of these as each piece used only 3 pattern pieces, as opposed to regular shirts that could use up to 10 panels. This effect almost creates origami-style layers that create flattering & interesting results. And isn’t that what we all want in life…to be flatteringly interesting!?

This Weeks Interview

Annie Oakes

This weeks interview is with our own designer Annie Oakes. She studies at Manchester Met Uni. she creates her own range of amazing clothing, of which some is for sale. she studied at London College of Fashion and went to the same college as Stella McCartney. she will take us through her path to be a designer and her view on the olympic kits.

To contact Annie about some of her range for slae contact her on annie_oakes@hotmail.co.uk or on he Facebook page- http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Annie-Oakes-Designs/217043118305980

This Weeks Fashion News

Olympic Fashion

So the Olympics are finally off the starting blocks and the media hurrah over the long standing competition at its peak (who thought it could get any bigger!) Here at Fashion for Thought we didn’t want to miss out on the frenzy, so in the interest of fashion, and of course national pride I thought I would delve in to a world I know little about, fashion in sport. Though sporting fashion seems to be top of some designers list; Ralph Lauren for Team USA, Giorigio Armani for Italy’s Olympic hopefuls and Hermes who designs the kits for the French equestrian team.

As fashion fans out there know the uniforms for team GB were designed by the lovely Stella McCartney, known for her previous work in making fashionable clothing for sports contributing with Adidas. Stella was criticised upon the launch of the range in March for her designs, the lack of red seemed to be a sore sport for many. I am, however, a fan. The designs combine a modern take on the union flag with a more understated patriotism than we have been used to in recent times. Many would be happier if our Olympians strutted out into the arena draped in the same bunting that adorns ever pub in our land, with union flag sunglasses and face paint to boot. The kits are and still patriotic but without being too cliché. I applaud McCartney for her minimal use of the colours that have blighted our streets this year. You may call me unpatriotic, and maybe I am, but is no one else sick of being proud? Aren’t we all a little bit tired of the red white and blue, after all, were not American.  No offence…

The opening ceremony on Friday can be seen as a huge success for Danny Boyle, but fashion seems to be one of the losers.  McCartney was very quick to state on her twitter that it wasn’t her who designed the outfits for the GB Team in the opening ceremony, and it’s easy to see why. Though there not as awful as some of the outfits; namely Sweden who appear to have great affection for rugby and the many countries who desired to dress their woman in what look like low budget air hostess uniforms from the 80’s (as Spain did, pictured below.)

I can’t speak too harshly of our sporting hopefuls ceremony outfits, the colour pallet of white and gold, though slightly unimaginative and maybe slightly presumptuous, is at least modern, a look forward, rather than back like the US. (Although, I’m really not sure about the gold sweat patches!)

The American kit has been designed by Ralph Lauren though criticised for being made in China, is VERY American. The outfits are classic and somewhat stylish, the men do look rather dashing in their white trousers and navy blue blazers, but the woman’s footwear and bobby socks left a lot to be desired.

So as London 2012 sets itself to be the most stylish Olympics yet, let’s hope that that the event can live up to its hype. Good luck Team GB, if you compete as well as your dressed our medal cabinets should be a shiny as the opening ceremony outfits.

By Clare Nugent

Fashion Philosophy With Gareth Davies

Topshop, Topman, Topcat- Cartoon fashion.

For my second contribution to FFT I want to talk about fashion in cartoon form, as let’s face it everybody likes at least one cartoon and just like politics, cartoons effect everybody. I’ll discuss a few cartoon outfits and reveal my personal most stylish cartoon  fashion icon.

First up are the Simpsons who have been style icons since the 1980’s and while many trends have been and gone since then this families garments have remained the same. It is my opinion that as a whole the Simpsons are a well dressed family. Homer famously dons his white shirt and blue pants, this may not sound very impressive, but the man is able to wear the same clothes wherever he goes, without kicking up a fuss and for this ability to go to work or to Moe’s without having to spend hours trying different outfits I believe to be a true fashion skill.

Behind every great man there is a great woman, Homer’s woman Marge is not behind but most certainly even more glamorous in fashion stakes than Homer. The lady wears heels, a dress and pearls no matter what circumstances even when simply cleaning. I’ve seen many a woman walk around in public bare foot due to the stresses of bad heels, but not Marge despite her persistence in wearing heals she has only the occasional mental breakdown.  Bart and Lisa and Maggie’s outfits are rather basic and not particularly stylish, however I respect this as children shouldn’t have to worry about what they wear.

Another popular cartoon is, any 90’s child’s favourite, Pokémon. Ash carries of his personal look quite wellas many of his clothes could be seen as a fashion disaster on other people, but not on this fella. Firstly if you get a close look at his jeans they a perfectly fitted. In the pressure of the shop environment ash clearly hasn’t rushed his decision and has selected the jeans that are right for him. Not only is this good to help him look smart but he will benefit from feeling great. We all have a pair of jeans that feel right and clearly ashes will give him the feel good effect. Another key aspect of ashes outfit is his trucker hat. I generally am not a fan of a trucker hat, however I’m willing to accept that ash pulls of his sublimely. Furthermore he is regularly seen wearing it in different poses in the cartoon, meaning that he can wear the same hat continuously without it becoming boring. Ashes friend misty has a good style too, everybody loves braces and she wears them brilliantly not looking pretentious and not looking dorky or old. Her colours co-ordinate well with the yellow top red braces and denim shorts. However the Pokémon gang are let down by one man, Brock. Brock has no sense of colour. His pasty green body warmer clashes horrifically with the minging plain orange tee-shirt and the combats are nothing to be jealous off. I hate to sound bitchy but I had to get that off my chest just like he needs to get that body warmer off his.

Many fashion fans cannot get enough of the retro look. There is nothing wrong with dressing with hints of past eras, most of the time it looks cool, as expressed by Eddie Dawson in his interview last week. However the Flintstones in my opinion have overdone it. While wearing a nice 50’s suit or leather biker jacket is quite cool and often sophisticated looking form of retro. Wearing a cut up Stone Age rag just seems scruffy to me and although Freddie tries to smarten up by wearing a tie that too looks as though he found it in a bus stop.

There is one cartoon, a cartoon cat, who dresses far smarter and puts human cartoons to shame. This cat is Top Cat, with two trendy stores adopting his first name as their own Top, is evidently going to be a dapper guy. His outfit consists of a purple rimmed hat and purple waistcoat. A timeless smart outfit jazzed up by being purple. This is a colour not many people would choose as their primary colour however Top, has got his colour choice spot on as it really brings out his fur. Top Cat is a walking example of how everyone should have a specific unique outfit that they love and wear regularly whilst looking brilliant to others. Well done Top Cat you win my best dressed cartoon award. 

Thank you for reading, Love Gareth. x