Christian Dior's recent couture show delights the sensual senses as models walk on a purple stage

Photo by Content Editor Lucia Carpio at Mayfield Lavender field in Banstead, Surrey, UK..

Christian Dior's latest haute couture catwalk show "The Garden of Earthly Delights" set inside the Rodin Museum in Paris was a big hit among the fashion press. The setting was a huge, abstract painted cube of perspex of a conservatory garden that featured myriad multicolored panels — and some even tripped on the giant colored fruit scattered around the floor.

MFFashion.com names it "the best of show". (To view video of show, click here.)

The Guardian newspaper in London referred to it as "both a celebration of beauty and a commentary on the fashion industry's commodification of beauty.  According to Creatove Director Raf Simons. the fashion collection, based on a Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch's painting had little to do with flowers, though models paraded the Autumn-Winnter 2015-16 collection during Paris Fashion Week on a purple catwalk, as if walking in a field of purple-coloured flowers.

As reported in The Guardian, Simons explained: “I was intrigued by the idea of forbidden fruit,
and what that meant now. The idea of purity and innocence versus luxury and decadence and
how that is encapsulated by the idea of Dior’s garden.” This garden, he went on to say, is “no longer a flower garden but a sexual one”.

The feminine collection had a Midieval feel to it, featuring rich and luxurious fabrics ranging from crepe silks to taffetas and velvets with a touch of fur.

Content Editor Lucia Carpio enjoying a personal experiece of a garden of earthly delights at
the Mayfield Lavender farm in Surrey, UK.

On a more personal note, our content editor Lucia Carpio recently visited the Mayfield Lavender farm in Banstead, Surrey, and experienced her own "purple" moment while walking among rows and rows of lavender.  "Intoxicated by the sweet scent and serenaded by the buzzing bees, I enjoyed this tremendous garden of earthly delights on a different level," she said.

The time for classic brogue detailing has come. See O.W.L.'s new Limited Edition watches.

In terms of footwear, nothing can be more British and classic than the Brogue, a style of sturdy leather shoes traditionally associated with business attire and now widely worn with casual wear and jeans.

Jude Antique Tan Brogues 

The Hamble Oak from Clarks has got great reviews.

 According to Wikipedia, brogues (derived from the Old Irish bróg) is a style of low-heeled shoe or boot traditionally characterised by multiple-piece, sturdy leather uppers with decorative perforations (or broguing) and serration along the pieces' visible edges.

Jude Antique Tan Brogues by Agnes & Norman

available on Notonthehighstreet.

And with the return to British-made or designed sentiments, "broguing" is a detailing widely adopted not only in modern footwear but for lifestyle fashion elsewhere.

British watch brand O.W.L. is one such brand that has been adopting the brogue detailing for its new ranges, including the limited edition Caterbury, which is being launched in September.

The latest addition features a 33mm diameter stainless steel case with layered sun ray dial featuring 3 working sub dials combining day, date and 24 hour functions.  The dial is encased underneath a vintage inspired domed lens.

The premium leather straps are made by layering 3 layers of soft, cut leathers and stitching together to form delicate Brogue detail. Note also the two-colour detailing in the new Canterbury watches.
How cool is that?

The brogue detailing on leather straps was first used in
O.W.L. 's Belfast range launched earlier this year SS15.

The O.W.L. brand was founded by Annett Alan who draws inspiration from British Heritage for her collections.

London-based artist turns personal photographs into wearable art

It was a pleasure meeting Jacqui Sinnatt, a London-based photographer cum artist/designer, who was exhibiting her range of beautifully hand-finished silk scarfs under the St Agnes Eve label at the Best of Britannia trade fair held last week (held June 26 - 28) at the Nicholls & Clarke Building on London's  Shoreditch High Street.

Photos above and below by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

Her scarfs - made and hand-finshed in the UK - are new canvases for displaying her designs based on her own photographs taken from trips and visits she has made around the British countryside.  The results are statements of her unique creativity, ranging from the bold and dramatic to romantic and intriguing.

Along with flowers and plants, wildlife and animals, she may spot found fragments that no one else would notice.  She then rescale her photographs and images to create unique stories that bring her memories from her travels around Britain to a new medium.  She captures these unique moments including experiences and adventures with writers, musicians, painters and other designers, while travelling through various parts of the UK, from Cornwall to Kent, from London to Scotland, through photographs and transfer them into digital imagery printed on scarfs.
Along with her scarfs, Jacqui has produced a catalogue explaining her stories and insights behind each scarf design.
In the picture below, Jacquis holds up her Nettlebed Blue scarf based on photographs she had made while strolling in the winter through the countryside surrounding the Oxfordshire village of Nettlebed and with the photographs she created a montqge of found objects.

Jacqui explains: "I was walking with my brother-in-law, who asked why on earth I would photograph discarded debris, twigs and leaves.  My response was 'everything' has its own beauty - and you never know when these images might come in useful," said Jacqui Sinnatt whose scarf designs can be found on www.stagneseve.com

Living near Kew Gardens in west London, Jacqui often goes to photograph the plants and discover new beauty in the old trees.  On one visit, a peacock was encountered in the garden and provided inspiration for the Peacock of Kew design.  "A close-up of his feathers, colours and textures inspired the scarf design," says Jacqui.

Here above is one entitled Exmoor Shale that Jacqui designed based on a trip to west of Ashburton with friends of a book club, after enjoying an evening of fine wines and gossips at a local bar followed by a morning walk on the moor.  She said in her catalogue, "Visions of literary spirits past and present accompanied our windswept walk on Exmoor and I was inspired by the complex textures of rock and stone balanced by hints of a clear turquoise sky glimpsed through scudding clouds.

Close-ups and magnified shots of plants and flowers inspired the kaleidoscopic design of another scarf shown above.  According to Jacqui, "The spiky burrs in the Pricklehead Blue scarf design were found on the banks of the river near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.  But when magnified they took on a whole new life reminding me of giant thistles found in the Scottish Highlands."

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty - V&A to open throughout the night due to popular demand

If you still haven't seen the immensely popular Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty which is on at the Victoria & Albert Museum until August 2nd, you may be pleased to learn that the V&A has announced that  the exhibition is to open throughout the night for its final two weekends, releasing additional 12,000 tickets, due to unprecedented demand.

While on-line advanced booking maybe closed, tickets are available on day of visit at the V&A, London.  And it's worth the £16 they charge for standard admission unless you've joined the membership then of course it's free.
For full information, click HERE.

The legacy of McQueen needs no introduction and this retrospective exhibition does not disappoint.

While McQueen's ingeneous work on show are awe-inspiring, throughout the exhibition one feels the presence of the designer by the quoting of McQueen's own words offering valuable insights into the thinking behind his visionary creations.

Here is a sampling of some of McQueen's great words:-

"You've got to have the rules to break them.  That's what I'm here for, to demolish the rules. but to keep the tradition."

"I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil."

"I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette cutting, so that when I'm dead and gone, people will know that the 21st century was started by Alexander McQueen."

See if you can spot them at the exhibition.

Photos above by Lucia Carpio for My Fashion Connect.

London's Fashion and Textile Museum extends Riviera Style swimwear exhibition due to poppular demand.

As the temperature soars, you  may choose to stay indoors, or go look at something that can cool you down.
Now here's something for you to admire, if you haven't been there yet, and is the next best thing to going to the seaside.

The Fashion and Textile Museum in London has extemded their “Riviera Style” exhibition until September 13th.

According to the FTM, the Riviera Style exhibition, which showcases 100 years of swimwear from 19th century bodysuits and Fifties’ bikinis to the 21st century burkini and mankini, is attracting record numbers to the Museum in Bermondsey with visitor figures up 19% on the same period last year.

Due to this, the show, which opened on 22nd May and originally scheduled to close on August 30th,  is to be extended to 13th September.

The museum has also seen record sales of exhibition prints thanks to a partnership with UK art publisher King and McGaw, with the most popular image being the Clacton-on-Sea Butlins’ poster designed in 1941 for London North East Railway (top), closely followed La Plage de Calvi by Roger Broders c.1929 (at right ).
Picture credits: (top) Butlin’s Clapton-on-Sea, LNER Poster, 1941. Design J. Greenup © NRM / Pictorial Collection / Science & Society Picture Library
[right] La Plage de Calvi, Corse, 1928 (Colour Litho) by Roger Broders (1883-1953). Private collection. Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images.

The Cass to stage Fabric of the City in mid-July to celebrate the legacy of the Huguenot Weavers

I am very pleased to learn that The Cass, London Metropolitan University is staging a major contemporary textile exhibition called Fabric of the City, to celebrate the legacy of the Huguenot Weavers in Spitalfields, East London coinciding with the Huguenots of Spitalfields festival, taking place during the summer across the capital. 

To be honest, I did not know much about the Huguenots but my interest in them increased recently after seeing British actress Julia Sawalha on the BBC programme Who do you think you are? in which she traced her maternal ancestry through her grandmother and found that she is a descendant of the Huguenots, French protestants who migrated to the UK in the 17th century and settled down in the Spitalfields.

Cass course leader and curator, Gina Pierce comments: “It’s surprising how few people have heard of the Huguenots, as their influence on craft and design was incredibly widespread, with the legacy of the weavers in Spitalfields having a lasting effect on the local textile industry.’’

Pierce added that the upcoming Fabrics of the City exhibition will highlight the creativity of 14 East London-based textile and fashion designers - including CuteCircuit, House of Flora, Jane Bowler and Alison Willoughby to name a few – who were invited to respond to the rich heritage of the Huguenots silk weavers that made Spitalfields a leading textile centre in the 17th Century, and create original work to be displayed in the Cass Bank Gallery.

One example of the stunning designs created for the high society by the Huguenots is The Fanshawe Dress (above), on display at the Museum of London.   An exceptional example of their highly skilled workmanship, this piece features signature silver thread and lace - distinctive features in the Huguenots’ designs, which have served as a starting point for the new designs exhibited in Fabric of the City. 

With first-hand access to archive material from the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museum of London, the designers carry the legacy of the Huguenot Weavers to their contemporary practices - from the choice of materials to the use of cutting-edge techniques – to craft unique exhibits, celebrating the skills and creativity in fashion and textile design of East London as well as the continued influence of the Huguenots on the textile courses run by the Cass.

Between 1670 and 1710, up to 50,000 Huguenots fled to the UK from France, and particularly to Spitalfields, bringing with them their exceptional silk weaving skills. Spitalfields had always had a silk weaving industry but the influx of such skilled craftsmen, along with the increase in the availability of silk, made the area a leading fashion production centre for the British upper class.

Today, London designers use distinctive features found in the Huguenots designs as a starting point for their creative works exhibiting in Fabric of the City.

Jane Bowler's Copper Dress

One such piece is Jane Bowler’s Copper Dress (on the right here), which draws inspiration from the use of metallic thread.

The Copper Dress has been constructed using hand-cut plastic multiples in combination with soft metallic strips, hand-woven throughout the garment, allowing the material to organically grow over the body of its wearer.

Bowler’s fascination with material innovation, process and craftsmanship – practised by applying traditional techniques with a modern twist – also mirrors the Huguenots’ inventive choice of materials and skilled craftsmanship.

CuteCircuit, The Eliza Dress, Pink and Black

Separately innovative use of materials is also a key aspect of the work of Shoreditch-based designer label CuteCircuit which creates haute couture clothing that has micro-electronics embedded into the fabrics, pushing the boundaries of wearable technology to create beautiful, interactive garments. For Fabric of the City, CuteCircuit continues to push the boundaries of this technology by presenting the K-Dress, a ready-to-wear version of the bespoke CuteCircuit creation worn by Katy Perry to the 2010 Met Gala. The delicate pleated silk chiffon seamlessly merges with the micro-lighting smart textile to create a magical garment that can change colour controlled by an iPhone App.

Fabric of the City runs at the Cass Bank Gallery from 10 -31 July 2015.  A number of workshops and talks will run throughout the exhibition.  These will include a Fabric of the City Symposium at The Cass (14 July), featuring talks by speakers from the V&A and the Royal College of Art, looking at different aspects of fashion-making in the area of Spitalfields, from 17th Century uses through to today.

Lorna Syson's new plant/storage pots & make up bags soon available online

British designer Lorna Syson has a knack of translating her experience of the British countryside into memorable designs to be enjoyed in the comfort of one' home.  

She brings the British Songbirds indoors depicting them on cushions, lampshade wallpapers, fabrics and wallflowers.  These have won fans all over.  Most recently Lorna's bird cushions were featured this week at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show - in the City Twitters Garden . You may have spotted them on BBC2's coverage on Monday 29th June co-presented by Rachel De Thame.

Award winning British designer Lorna Syson set up her home wear brand in 2009 with help from the Princes Trust Business development loan. Since then the brand has grown from strength to strength and Lorna’s products are now found in respectable interior shops and boutiques across the globe.

Among Lorna's latest designs are the new plant/storage pots & make up bags which will be available online in July. 

These were tested at the Cockpit Arts Summer Open studios back in May and after making a few tweaks, which include water proof linings, the new and improved versions are ready to be launched in a couple of weeks on Lorna Syson's website, so keep your eyes peeled.