Today in my coin holder...

....there was some fabric samples. USB stick, spool case and bobbin, a eye with no hook and a grand total of 5p.





needs to be more money in there!

Boomerang 1992

The perfect era, well for me the early 90's, Jordan and the Bulls, Leeds United winning the Championship, the Fashion, Hip-Hop, everything seemed so much more iconic back then. Growing up, where sneakers and how to lace them were your only worry. The movies:

I recently watched Boomerang, for the god-know how many time, but always intigues me. In particular the suits Eddie Murphy wore that made him the suave Marcus Graham in the movie.

Clean cut, structured attire, that had him dazzling all the ladies. A very Parisian feel to the movie, probably due to the fact the Director was influenced by François Truffaut's Jules and Jim.

Ladies get them toes did!

"Check it. Like Jet magazine. This is my mack daddie vibe I am giving you. In all its splendor."

My Illustration Style

My style is very much hand rendered, getting down marks quicky and working over the top with various mediums. Such as Inks, Pencils, watercolours and sometimes intergrated with CAD.

Influenced by the likes of Sara Singh, I feel I have a distinct style.

Here are a few older Illustrations:













"Every line means something."
Jean Michel-Basquiat

Read any good books?

Books are the key to knowledge, the more you read the more you know and the range expands the areas of your knowledge.

I recently printed out all the books I had loaned from the library in the last 3 years, its started with Galliano in September 2006.

92 books later and still trying to teach "the old dog new tricks". The dog being me.

Books im currently looking at:

Knowledge is Power.

Vans Vault 2009 Fall/Winter Wingtip Era

I do enjoy a wingtip shoe and also love vans so this is near to perfection. Carries the sophistication of the dress shoe and has the the comfort of a skate shoe. Wtaps did one not so long ago but the finish wasn't great and nor was the shape.

This looks a nice Era shape and comes in various colours.








Off the wall and into the Ballroom.

Fabric Trip!

These ventures excite me almost as much as I can imagine walking down sneaker street in Hong Kong. We went on a little trip to Fabworks in Dewsbury.

My colour pallete is decided its just gettin the right print and fabric at most importnatly: THE RIGHT PRICE!! I managed to get a few nice wools, blacks, greys and tweed mix. prints wise there was not much cracking off!

Search continues.

Im currently addicted to....

CRAZY SOUR SKITTLES!!

so many vivacious tangy flavours!!

Coco Avant CHANEL

The Movie!! Brought to my attention by Ticklemouse of Shoreditch!

Sub-Titles please!







There's somethin about that double C aswell as the double S.

I love a pair of shoes.

These aint half bad. Raf Simons embroidered shoe. The heavily ebroidered shoe which gradually fades as it reaches the heel. Nice.




"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been. I've worn lots of shoes. I bet if I think about it real hard I could remember my first pair of shoes." Forrest Gump

Ken Lagerfeld

Put away your G.I Joe!

Get on this! Karl Lagerfeld has his own doll!The doll was presented to him at Colette’s recent celebrations for Mattel Barbie’s 50th Anniversary. Look at how the pictures have been airbrushed maybe to give the appearance of smooth plastic texture that of the dolls.

Collette blog

A garment a day...

.... keeps the stress away!

From sketched idea to pattern manipulation, to making with a strict 1cm seam. All is going well and touch wood the experimentation is almost workin first time. Taking a 2D idea and applying to cloth to create the desired 3D silhouette aint as easy at seems. Shirt finished and trousers done in a day. Surgical proceedings.

Shirt

Trousers

Jordan vi

Standard procedure




"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." Robert Half

Grafting!

Need...

Tickets to Jacko... the greatest performer of all time. I must go. I cant miss this!




King of Pop.

Day at the Surgery

Put on some tunes:

Draw some patterns:

Surgical Tools:

Do some sewing:


Karl has left the Building. Leaving his collar behind:

I put it on a shirt:



Something I stitched earlier:

Selvage:

A regular day at the Surgery.

Balmain Fall 2009

The cult peaked-shoulder Balmain jacket was reiterated in force, and has a strong relation to areas I considered for my collection, but also for men, using this structured shoulder design, maybe take it forward into jumpers, sweats, knits and even the hood piece. Also looking at the interesting use of embelishment, in the form of swarovski crystals I intend on pushing this with my own personal Surreal touch.

Balmain

Bargain!

I regularly shop on eBay to find hidden gems and collectable goods. In the past I have sourced all kinds of bargains. Today I recieved a lovely pair of Salvatore Ferragamo tassle loafers, for a beautiful price of $24!

"Like a Glove I tell theee!"

Jo Harrison @ Modern Body Art

I recently got a portrait tattoo done, I researched the artist I wanted to do this for a while. Eventually I came to a huge decision, being a Virgo I find this fairly hard, but eventually I put trust in Jo Harrison after seein various pieces of her work I thought she would be perfect.

I chose Mahatma Gandhi for the portrait as he stood for peace and unity and bringing everyone together as one, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. He is even more importnat to me as sometimes I feel I need to find my inner-peace, the tattoo may be superficial way of achieving this but I feel eventually it will come, inspired by Mahatma, which in Sanskrit means 'Great Soul'.

We then travelled to Modern Body Art in Birmingham. 3 hours of addictive pain, the only way I can describe the ink needle hitting the skin, was worth it.

sisters came for support

"In a gentle way you can shake the World"

Modern Body Art

Hugo the Boss

Our studio technician and Couture magician, Hugo made his first dress when he was the tender age of 4...yep while some of us were just about grasping the concept of speech, he was putting in princess seams at 0.5cm allowance.

Been in the game for some time now he has worked for many different companies such as Jitrois, and offers an answer to every sewing problem! A wonderful guy who always on hand to help... especially on making one of my first professional looking garments, a leather bomber jacket. Even tho he laughed continuously at the quality of my leather!! Making that jacket basically taught me how to put things together.

Teaching how to Knit

The Upholstery Jacket!

Alexander the Great had Aristotle, we have Hugo!

End Of The Beginning- Second Garment

Garment that has next been produced with surgical care and skill is the BlazerHood. A collaboration with bespoke hoodie makers House of Billiam.

A personal take on their philosophy of making hooded garments with traditional suit fabrics of your choice. I emphasised the suit aspects and also added detachable accecories, seen here made in calico, experiment material. The final piece will be made from Black Nappa leather, Grey lightweight Tweed as it is reversible the lining will be a printed fabric will remain a mystery until the final one is made!!

Bet the suspense is killing you!

"All Good in the Hood"