Labrinth Come In!

kumusta may!
and if you're not filipino
Hello there!

It's friday so its time for my SCF or Style Crush Friday!
this week my style crush is Labrinth

- Photo By Phil Sharp 2012 -

What I love most about labrinth style is the way that he mixes hip hop and urban with classic vintage pieces.
To me Labrinth is the definition of the word 'swag' if there ever was one, he's the only man I know that can wear turtle necks with a hat and a chain and a scarf without it looking too crowded! Another reason I have chosen him is because I like the fact that his outfits never really look similar, I imagine that if you spread his wardrobe out through a whole room and asked people how many peoples wardrobe do you think this is, I think they'd say at least 4 because of  that variety.

- normally I'm not a fan of cuffed chinos, but he makes them amazing!-
- Outfit all from Topman -

- I need this scarf! -

- Jumper - Cos, Jeans - Nudie, Boots - Topman -

- He even makes carrying a suitcase look cool -

- Tee - Urban Outfitters, Coat - Squadron HQ. -

This is one of my most favourite song, Earthquake and I like the Live Lounge version so much, my favourite thing about it is the choir that mix between hip hop and classic... I JUST LOVE IT!



TTFN

Beards and Brogues!

☯

From Rags To Riches

Hello There!

As I'm an art student, I naturally get assigned projects of the art kind!
And I've recently been given my FMP (final major project! The theme for the project is....

'Inside Out - Outside In'
I know a few of you maybe thinking, 'like when you put your clothes on and then you have the label out and you have to make the choice between; keeping it inside out, going through the effort of getting changed or turning it right side out and risk getting a nasty case of bad luck!' because I know thats what I initially 

thought of...
But then after some further thought and thinking in a more arts-y, textile-y, fashion-y way my train of thought lead me to eureka land! i thought of seams on clothes and how they construct garments and act as a skeleton. This then lead me to begin deconstructing some of my old clothes.

I began to take large chunks out of garment, and just leaving the seams and stitching to hold it together.

This reminded me of the cage skirt, which has been developed since victorian times and is now constantly on and off the couture catwalks! and is ever more popular with the steam punkers and cyber gothics.

-Cage Skirt by Chaos Latex-

-Those crazy steampunk gothics with their walking sticks and blue fringes-

-Cage Skirt by Alexander McQueen-

My next step was to dress my cut up clobber on a model!
My plan for the shoot was to make him look like he was dressed normal, but then have a piece of clothing that was missing about 85% of its substance.
(Because I might need my model model for me in the future I thought it would be best to pixelate his face, however I'm terrible when it come to technology so my finest Microsoft paint skills will have to do!)

 These are my favourite 5 photos out of the entire shoot!

My next move was to create a seam myself. Luckily around the time this idea came around an open day was on where I was needed to act as an example of 'what the students are doing now', if I'm being honest I was staying for the free coffee! but whilst waiting for people to come up to me and ask about the course etc, I discovered a machine... the overlocker! I'm still in awe at its amazing-ness! I soon got the hang of it and even sooner whipped up a long patchwork scarf of different colour, size and texture patches of fabric which I experimented with by pinning it to a backpack and also creating a 'snood' or 'infinity scarf'! 

-Scarf on my model-

-Scarf on a mannequin-

 -Backpack on a mannequin-

-Snood / infinity scarf on a mannequin

 -Close up of snood / infinity scarf-

  -Close up of snood / infinity scarf-

I'm so inspired with this project and I'm really looking forward to see where it develops and leads too, I've already got some awesome ideas and if they work it will be AH-MAY-ZING but they could change depending on what happens with development etc.
But I'll keep you posted!

TTFN
Beards and Brogues!

☯

I Want To Start Something New - SCW

Hello there!

Long time no see (I'm Sorry -PLEASE DONT HATE ME-)

I've been chocka bloka with college work but the rolling programme is now finished, so I have more time to focus on other things instead of running around like dick dastardly after the pigeon!

I've been thinking of what I can do as something new to my blog to make it more a fashion blog and less of a random thing, and I thought maybe I could have like a set day for a set thing. - kinda like how monday night is bingo night- but in the crazy world of blogging of course. So I was scrolling through the social networks and hoping an idea would just spring to mind., and just like that it did!

I noticed that these 'man crush mondays/MCM and women crush wednesdays/WCW' things were becoming fairly popular and then I thought I could do a style crush type thing where I just post about someone whose wardrobe I would love to run away with, and probably elope - but not in a creepy way! 

So this is my idea, i'm going to road test it for a few weeks and if it goes ah-may-zing then I might consider doing more things based on a daily theme!
so im thinking of naming it...
Style Crush Friday or SCF for short.
So here is my first post

Nick Grimshaw

I've chosen Nick Grimshaw for my first Style Crush Friday as I have always wanted to be him! he radiates cool and has a wardrobe to match. I love the way he mixes urban with tailored and tailored with casual to create an iconic look. Lets face it I'd be willing to say about 60% of men that know who Nick Grimshaw is has wanted to be him at least once in there life, I know I have!

- This makes me want a camel coat! -

-Nay I NEED a camel coat!-

- Grimmy definitely loves a biker jacket, who doesn't?- 

-Favourite outfit! those pesky layers always win me over!-

- I love that Grimmy wears a stripe pretty much all year round, but dresses it differently to make it weather and season appropriate -

TTFN

Beards and Brogues!
☯

This Is Halloween!

Zoinks! its that spooky time of year!

This Weekend at my place of work we had a little Halloween dress up day! The idea was to look like something without being in an actual costume and wearing the brand (I work in a clothes shop)!

So after much googling and pinterest-ing (and other forms of searching) I decided to dress up as Pugsley Addams from the Addams Family!

-sorry the pictures so bad, the only good ones on a friends camera gahh!-

This then made me think what do I want to dress up as for actual halloween, because there aren't many more things I like more than dressing up!, so I thought I'd pop on the Addams family DVD and get in the halloween mood and share a few of my favourite easy to do costumes that are unusual, simple and clever! And hope this will somehow help me make up my mind, and also to give anyone thats a bit stumped what to dress up as some ideas!

Pop Art

-Whats better than walking art?!-

-All you need is face paint, bright and graphic clothes and patience for all the dots and lines!-

-I really like the shirt on this one! I love that this guy has just got a stripey short and outlined the seams, adds extra details to take his costume to the next level!, trippy.-

Cosmo and Wanda 

If you know who these two characters are then your childhood was awesome and if you don't you're either too old or I feel sorry for you!

These two fairies were the fairy godparents of Timmy in the cartoon 'Fairly Odd Parents' and were my favourite characters in the show!

-The simplicity of this costume is what makes it so epic-

-I think it's especially clever how these people have used yellow card to make a crown and then used wire to give the illusion of it floating! this costume is just. genius!-

Mannequin

I saw this idea on American Apparel last year, when they did their halloween costume collection! and I've thought it was amazing ever since I first saw it!

-All you need is white body paint!-

-The cheapness about this costume is a seriously strong factor to the outfit, all you need is a good body paint to create a crisp, even white complexion and you can wear clothes from your wardrobe!- 

-The way you act is important to create a ultra realistic costume and sitting like this makes you look like a real life mannequin, with joints that don't move!-

Wally/Waldo

Where's Wally?

Where's Waldo?

No matter what you call him the games the same and the looks, meaning the costume is more iconic and easier!

-Gareth Barry seen sporting the fetching stripes and glasses for a stag do, showing you would probably get a fair bit of wear out of this costume as wheres Wally/Waldo parties are increasing in popularity!-

-I personally prefer this homemade version of the costume rather than the actual fancy dress costume, I feel it looks more realistic! I also think adding the camera as an accessory and a satchel gives him that explorer theme! a final plus is that if you're ever in a shopping centre or somewhere busy and you and  friend are bored you could recreate some of the games by standing in a crowd and getting your friend to take a photo from high up! ahah- 

Alien Tourist

Another one from the American Apparel Halloween costume ideas similar to the mannequins but instead of painting yourself white go a for a more dapper green complexion!

-In my opinion wearing 90's style clothes makes them more of a costume. I think that wearing classic tourist items i.e Cargo shorts, socks and sandals, trainers, floral prints, a fanny pack etc. give a real interesting costume! Also creating much wider eyes by painting alien eye shapes in black paint make it more obvious that your an alien and not just an ill tourist.-

-My favourite halloween song to get me in the halloween mood!-
-'This is Halloween', From 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'-

TTFN

Beards and Brogues
☯

-Disclaimer: i don't own any of the images (other than the one of my Pugsley costume)-

Orley Spring 2014!

Orley have released their Spring 2014 collection, so I thought this would be the perfect chance for me to pick my favourite looks from their collection and give some form of review I guess, however I'm not the best at reviews as you're probably about to find out, but I'll try my bestest!

Orley is a Brand consisting of 2 Brothers (Alex and Matthew Orley) and Samantha Florence (Matthews Fiancee) and are a label that Specializes In Knitwear. As a brand they are constantly sourcing inspiration, be it from buildings in exoctic places to vintage iconic motifs. The Brand is constantly exceeding their challenge to never conform and to stand out! 

 “Our customers are Matthew and I, I don’t wear any black.” - Alex Orley

-Image Source: orley.us-

There SS14 Collection takes inspiration from islamic architecture and eastern motifs. What I love about this collection is their odd choice in colour bring autumnal shades and mixing them with pastels to revamp the spring colour palette! Another thing that really stands out to me is the way that they have used vintage style cumberbands, lowered them so they act more as a belt, I feel like this detail takes their looks to a much more classier and elite platform, making their garments look more expensive.
Their use of space dye knits and pleated shorts have really inspired me and made me want to start planning my spring wardrobe! Im also infatuated with their use of loafers and socks to give an 'old man' sense of being to the collection which brings me to the final thing that i love about this brand! their fashion video;

- I can't add it for some reason but I'll link it here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tguDsLerVLU

"We rely on our tenets of elegance and irreverence" - Matthew Orley

What I love about this video is that they have made it not an obvious fashion film or even to do with fashion!, and the fact that they have used elderly models for the film and young models for the photographs shows how versatile there clothing is and that the label doesn't see for any reason of fashion having restrictions to age!

TTFN
Beards and Brogues!
☯