Tech Touch Style

Technology and fashion seem to be going hand in hand these days like bread and butter and Abercrombie and Fitch. One of the sponsors of London Fashion Week (LFW) are Hannspree who donated netbooks for use in the Bloggers Bar. Sony Vaio provided laptops for the media room for Vauxhall Fashion Scout and of course there is the relationship that HP has with the industry ie the Vivienne Tam netbook. After having no access to internet during my stint at LFW (left laptop at home and had no time to blog while rushing from show to show) I couldn't wait to get home and type all my posts up on my HP TouchSmart 300 which is in my office. The PC is a multi touch screen and comes with Windows 7 as well as fantastic a 20 inch full HD display screen. So it is one hell of a beauty. As I am not really too keen on touching the screen (I feel that it is too sacred) it is great that a keyboard and mouse included. The sound from the HP TouchSmart is superb and I tuned into BBC Radio 1Xtra while I was cranking out those LFW posts. There is enough speed to store images and videos which is great for when I am selecting which picture to use for a blog post. It also allows me to retouch and crop images easily which is essential as I have been taking a lot of images at LFW. As my office is right next to the bathroom I tend to indulge in playing my iTunes selection while I am relaxing in the bath. So the HP TouchSmart works well for both work and play.

The picture above is taken from the launch of the HP TouchSmart which I attended back in July (you can read my blog post about it here) where Project Runway finalist Emilio Sosa talked about how he uses the PC to work on his designs.

Untold Season VII

I came across Untold during the summer at Clothes Show London and I was pretty impressed with the work from the designers. Untold Design is a community interest company and social enterprise which offers new and emerging creatives who specialise in various aspects of design a space to show their work. Untold pay a lot of lip service in collaboration and collective showcasing where all the designers work together which brings down the cost aimed at the creatives. The Untold story began in 2007 with just three designers and now three years later the collective has seen over 300 designers and creatives go through their doors. On Monday all doors led to The Design Museum where Untold Season VII took place in conjunction with The London Design Festival and London Fashion Week. There was a pop-up boutique on the old routemaster double decker bus parked outside of the venue where you could buy special editions of prints by Victoria Scott as well as a variety of illustrations. On the top deck there were collections by Eki Orleans and Zanaib Vandu-Chikolo. The designers showing off their collections on the runway were Tijana & Mila Popovic, Ross Paul Keenan, Jasmine Howard-Evans, Eki Orleans, Ricardo Ramos and Karla Sabina.

The idea behind the Tijana & Mila Popovic collection is to unite ethics and aesthetics drawing from new age elements and fashion, graphics and interiors. This was a gorgeous collection with chiffony dresses, leotards and lots of PVC. Despite having being trained on Saville Row Ross Paul Keenan wanted to rebel against this and as a result his collection was based on the concept of football and the Brixton riots. Ricardo Ramos's collection was based on his inspiration of India hence the use of saris, cottons, Madras checks and diplomat stripes. This was quite a dusky collection with flashes of vibrant colours on dresses and pantsuits.

Eki Orleans brilliantly uses West African prints on silk materials and turns them into smock tops, floaty maxi and shift dresses. I loved this collection and it was refreshing to see the prints used on silk as opposed to other materials. With the use of two dimensional and three dimensional design, Jasmine Howard-Evans creates her collections with a holistic approach, creating prints and pieces that interact together. I thought this collection was fabulous and I really liked the way the models were sent down the catwalk with a tiny camera where they pretended to take pictures of the audience and the photographers. Very cute. Karla Sabina's collection consists of handbags and jewelley which tells a story of sensibility, experience and maturity of someone who has learned to trust her senses. The necklaces were very elegant and the tiny shoulder bags were tres chic. Untold created a fantastic evening with a wonderful celebration of fashion and it is great to see so much talent in this country. The evening was topped off with a serving of tea and cupcakes. Well what else?

You can find out more about Untold by visiting their website.

Pics are supplied by Untold. Middle pic is of the collection by Tijana and Mila Popovic, the bottom pic is of Jasmine Howard-Evans. 

The Look Show 2.0

Another season and another exciting installment of The Look Show returned in conjunction with London Fashion Week. Once again it took place at The Saatchi Gallery and there were the delights of free champagne and canapes as well as various pamper treatments. There were also performances by Gabriela Clini (in the pic below), Diana Vickers and hip US group, The Like. Apparently there were numerous C-list celebs in tow such as Jamelia, X Factor's Jo McEldery, Shane Ward, Martine McCutheon but I only spotted a bleary eyed looking Callum Best. I met up with the lovely Yvonne from Pretty Stylish London and we indulged in a makeover courtesy of Benefit.

The Look Show is organised by Look magazine and the aim of the event is to showcase the new season's trends from high street stores. The event made its official debut last February and was a huge success (read my previous blog review here) and as LFW concentrates on what we will be wearing for next Spring and Summer it is refreshing to see what the trends are for this season. High street brands such as M&S, Oasis, French Connection, Mango, Dorothy Perkins, River Island, Warehouse, H&M, Office, Monsoon, New Look and Next all showed their wares for this autumn and winter. The looks that I saw were the inevitable camel shades and aviator jackets; I wouldn't throw those ankle boots or shorts away just yet as they are still going strong. There were still a few capes around and jumpsuits as well as maxi dresses. Office employed the use of dancers to show off their 60s sci-fi themed shoes. I did see some really lovely pieces; such as the gorgeous crepe shifts, floaty tunics and jersey dresses from French Connection and Dorothy Perkins had a selection of wonderful prints on maxi and midi dresses and vintage florals. Monsoon never fail to impress me with their exotic colours, beautiful fabrics detailed finishing and their a/w 10 range has not let them down. It is full of lots of delights of quirky prints, wonderful hues with draped chiffons, fluid sheers and sequin embellishment. The fashion show takes over just under an hour but it is well worth it, with great models and a thumping soundtrack, this is one of the most fun fashion shows I have ever been to. To top that off we were given a goodie bag rammed full of beauty products and accessories. Not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Keeping up with the blogging trend, Look magazine also ran a blogging competition where they invited several bloggers to come down and review the show. You can read all about the comp and all the reviews here.

Fashion Diversity

London Fashion Week kicked off last Friday with the usual glamourous fashion shows, after parties, celebrities on the front row and various launches. Over six days there has been a huge plethora of designers showing their offering for next Spring and Summer but the catwalk shows have not just been restricted to the BFC tent; other partners such as Vauxhall Fashion Scout and On/Off have been drawing a huge crowd with their shows. However, LFW was given a huge boost with the announcement that the British fashion industry is worth nearly £12 billion (yes billion!) proving to be the one of the most creative industries. The irony of this statement does not escape me  as life in the Brit fashion industry is far from rosey. I was having a BBM discussion with Janice from Mad News about the position of London Fashion Week in comparison with the other fashion weeks such as New York, Milan and Paris. Jan was under the impression that LFW was up there in the echelons when in reality the event is very low down the ranks. LFW is seen as the quirkier and edgy sister and the place to go for ideas and trends but in terms of sales that is all done in New York, Milan and Paris. Most of the top editors skip London after New York and head straight for Milan along with most of the top models. Reason being? Well simply - cold cash or rather lack of. As slick as the British Fashion Council may appear to be there is a serious problem with finances within the British fashion scene. A lot of new designers in this country struggle to get their business off the ground and even when they do it is a constant struggle for them to get the next collection out. Initiatives like On/Off and Vauxhall Scout Fashion were set up to provide new designers with a platform to show their work which would hopefully lead them to bigger and better things and have done a fantastic job and now there are other collectives that are set up to promote up and coming designers.

Fashion Diversity, Fashion Mavericks and Untold are just a few organisations who are showcasing new designers. Fashion Diversity has been running for two years and their objective is to re-addrress the balance of diversity during London Fashion Week by raising the profile and supporting designers and models within the UK fashion industry. This took place in the form of a two day celebration of fashion which consists of a press launch and a VIP gala show, a fashion show featuring the work of students and graduates as well as a fashion show for the public. Last Thursday I went down to the press launch and gala awards which took place at Islington Metal Works. The event was a collaboration between Mahogany Model Management and Untold Design CIC and featured the works of Mong, Nias World, Aaron Purean Khan, Arif Khan, Aamaa Couture, Bibi Grafitti, Chichia London, Blaq by Sasha James and Kevin Patrick. The designs were a mixture of modern designs with shells and embellishments as well as African prints. Designers, Adebayo Jones, Jolaby and Patrick Kevin were rightfully given awards to honor their careers and success in the fashion industry and both Adebayo Jones and Patrick Kevin showed off their collection for us to see. I was really impressed with the quality of the designs as well as the elaborate make up and it is great to see designers with a much smaller profile getting their props.

For more information about Fashion Diversity check out their website.