The Full Circle: accessories to staple white tees.

Cardigans (well, those of the bulkier variety) really aren't all that practical. I contemplated using my BT2 gift voucher on that Junk de Luxe number but, in all likelihood, it wouldn't get worn that often since the Dexter Wong for Lens donkey jacket is sufficiently insulating and there's not a day goes by it's not worn. What I really need right now, surprisingly, are tees for extra warmth for the trek to college and prevention of over-heating mid-lecture.

Whether they're in tatters, discoloured due to an idiotic approach to washing or just ill-fitting, my t-shirts aren't fulfilling their role as wardrobe staple that sees you succeed with even the most random selection of clothing. I'm somewhat better off now, thanks to Full Circle's SS09 military model. I needed a good white tee. I love epaulettes. Hence...

^ Full Circle SS09 tee, bagged for the bargain price of €20 in Grafton St.'s BT2

All this FC-appreciation got me thinking about my chance rendezvous with Steve of Buckstyle during last season's London Fashion Week menswear day. Immaculately attired outside the Satyenkumar show, he was lauding the goody-bags at Lou Dalton which held the most exquisite black leather driving gloves, which Dalton (now accessory designer for the brand) had designed for Full Circle. Not only has she fashioned the aforementioned but the creative collab. has also yielded the below-pictured range of practical yet aesthetically pleasing bags...

^ Lou Dalton for Full Circle bags. On sale next season.

Feeling the left more than the right. Regardless, they both make for college-suitable baggage.

Images from Hypebeast and Coutie

Margiela- and MJ-inspired Horror Garb.

Spending more time studying the notion of the 'abject' and its application to the Horror genre of film, than researching possible Halloween outfits is no fun at all. Well, not exactly, we do get to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre as part of the case-study but it still means I'm currently costume-less.

Like unwavering self-confidence, blissful ignorance and pocket money, the ardour for Halloween costume-construction is something that many of us lose following that rude awakening - the transition from childhood to adolescence. I might take an avid interest in putting together what to wear during my daily life but when it comes to All Hallows' Eve I'm don't compare to gothic-obsessed childhood-self since I never fail to be stupidly busy at this time of year. This year, though, I'm at least attempting to conceive an idea, which has been partly inspired by American Apparel Dublin's Halloween Party theme (Zombies and Cheerleaders) and the Margiela so-covetable-it's-maddening gear Joe of 00o00 posted recently...

^ Martin Margiela AW08 nylon padded jacket.

From the AW08 collection, the jacket could perhaps make the perfect fusion of zombie/cheerleader in that it directly references the below-pictured as well as being an all 'round superb piece of outerwear artistry.

^ Stills from MJ's Thriller

Yes I know neither he (MJ), nor his gurl, are cheerleaders but it's got the whole teen-terror theme going on and he does become somewhat zombified by the end of the video so I reckon it's justified (plus Margiela's no longer designing at MM so it'd be in keeping with the 'dead' aspect...actually, no, that's stretching it too far...). But the making is in the combining the jacket with - I'm currently thinking - a white slashed tee or vest, some scuffed jeans and hi-tops perhaps?

Do note that this won't actually be my costume unless someone leaves me something of significant worth in their will between now and Thurs. What have you got planned for the sartorial screamfest?

Images from BryanBoy, The Daily Mail and Fake Hustle

Clarks Commemorates the Desert Boot.

Alleviating alcohol- and partying-induced aches is no mean task. However, I find the process of recovery is expedited somewhat when footwear- fetishizing is involved. After countless hours of traipsing around in search of THE boots, I eventually succumbed to dark brown suede. No they're not exactly what I'd envisaged but they're pretty damn fine all the same. No pics as of yet since I've returned to the homeland - sans entire - wardrobe for the weekend but a post is soon to follow...

What I do have though is a serious, and entirely unexpected, lust for Clarks. Once the prime purveyor of school-appropriate and irritatingly conservative footwear has pulled a bit of a Madonna and reinvented itself, all in the name of the desert boot. Invented by Nathan Clark in 1949, primarily for the off-duty soldier's use, the desert boot has proved itself both practical and aesthetically pleasing. I don't think it's looked quite as hot as it's seeming now, though, what with the launch of Clarks Originals 60th Anniversary collection. There's one for each decade, from the 50s Harris tweed to the 00s vintage sand suede. The 90s Britpop-inspired model has me contemplating beans-on-toast for a month if it'd mean i'd have a chance...


^ 00s Vintage sand suede



^ 90s Britpop/Union Jack calf suede



^ 80s acid-washed denim (advertised as 'for women'...personally, if I were a few sizes smaller, it'd not stop me...)



^ 70s Fringed deep purple suede



^ 60s Liberty print



^ 50 Harris tweed

Note: Just for the filmic fun, I recommend watching Tom Tykwer's 'Run Lola Run'/'Lola Rennt'. Can't recall what footwear she sports while sprinting through the streets of post-unification Berlin but, regardless, for formal experimentalism, video game logic and questions of chaos theory it's just what the doctor ordered.

Images from Hypebeast

Anthony Burrill x Offset: Making It All Free.

So thoughts on the exploitation of ethnicity and the excess of Carmen Miranda's cornucopia hats have all been spewed (see previous post if this entirely unintelligible...) and I've snatched a few moments for post-essay blogging (and excuse the brevity, got a presentation on the influence of Brecht on the horizon...).

UK creative Anthony Burrill has designed a range of tees as part of the upcoming and v. exciting Offset. Due to take place in this fair city in early November, Offset is a festival for all things creative which culminates in a 3-day long conference on, you guessed it, all things creative. I'd rave further but time's severly limited so head ye to their bold and bright site for more info if you're fond of the idea.

^ Anthony Burrill and his exhibition, "In a New Place"



^ The Burrill x Offset tee (which unfortunately isn't actually free, €30 isn't exactly extortion though!). Grab it from 26th Oct to 9th Nov at BT2 Grafton St.

I've never been one for all-up-in-your-grill giant slogan tees but the Burrill number is winning me over, chiefly due to the fact that the message couldn't resound with me more. Much of the work I feature on this blog is designer-branded and often firmly placed at the higher-end of the retail market. The sad truth, dear reader, is that I can't afford most of it so I tend to just fawn over it profusely. So let's please all make it all free!

Cardigan Craving: Junk de Luxe.

Due to my more than short attention span, I tend to alter my focus from certain brands to others each season, which means few ever seem worthy of investing in each time 'round. Junk de Luxe is the one high-end-of-high-street label that always manages to buck the trend. Granted the majority of their collection is, each season, composed of what I like to call "safe stock" (i.e. a profusion of conventional cuts rendered in grey and black), they always manage to secure my attention with one or two items that hold that bit more quirk-appeal than the remainder.

For AW09 I'm hankering after the below-pictured warped harlequin-esque print cardigan in, eh ironically, grey and black. But what it lacks regarding the chromatic it makes up for with geometrics or at least that's my logic. And it has pockets, which too few cardigans are in possession of. And I have a €50 gift voucher from the beautiful people at BT2 (who lavished breakfast pastries and said gift vouchers on us bloggers last Saturday) so more Junk will inevitably be added to the trunk, I reckon.

Image from BT2

Shake Appeal AW09.

This blog wasn't ever intended as a platform to fuse fashion and film but what with so much of what would have previously been blogging time now given over to film and its accompanying theories, everything's melding into one. And, I guess, that's no bad thing since there's always been considerable crossover between the two disciplines.

Currently, I should be penning an essay on exoticism in Latino and Latin American cinema (the exotic excess of Carmen Miranda anyone?) but I've gone the way of respite rather than research with the help of Shake Appeal's AW09 lookbook. I'm not feeling entirely guilty, though, since the whole affair has got something of the exotic 'Other' about it. Shot with what look to be tropical gardens and palace-esque structures as backgrounds, the lookbook caters both to the escapist and sartorialist.

Founded by London Instituto Marangoni-grad, Chanachai Ohpanayikool, this Bangkok-based label combines an easy casualness with elements which are guaranteed to simultaneously smarten- and toughen-up. The pairing of a breton tee with fairly civilian rolled-up khakis, might seem at first to lack anything of particular interest but its this nonchalance which appeals the most, I reckon, and anyway, with the addition of grey suede deck shoes, there's not much to criticise. Ohpanayikool gets dressier with a striped cowl-neck and some greed-inducing nylon outerwear. Granted, it's not the clothing equivalent of a major scientific breakthrough but it is wearable and then surely worthwhile...

Notes on Nosferatu-chic.

Call me superficial but the majority of the appeal of studying film derives from watching those with luscious mise-en-scene, not those that play with narrative convention or employ Brechtian techniques of distanciation (I'm looking at you Godard...). As part of genre studies, we're doing a mini-case study on Dracula films. This week, it's Ford-Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is surely the epitome of shite, wooden acting and sumptuous sets and costumery.

The abundance of gothic attire got me thinking about Robert Geller's rather vampiric offering for AW09. This season's man was a pallid (and perhaps undead?) fellow looking dashing circa 1900. But it wasn't a festering lot of period costume, rather it was version of dark dressing made appropriate for the contemporary Count through the inclusion of leather trousers and accessories and the use of layering of simply cut separates.

Hats are that little bit Van Helsing - wide-brimmed and reminiscent of a traditional Pilgrim and Boss of the plains hybrid model. The addition of the v. vampire-esque (well, the trad kind...think Lestat in Interview with a Vampire) neckwear in knife-sharp-canine white, coagulated blood red, and black, completes the ensemble. These accessories are more affectionately known as "draped dangly bits" by one Tim Blanks, so I'm resting assured it is, of course, the technical term.

Robert Geller AW09

Any other devilish sources of inspiration for dress? If yes, do make them known below.

Images from Men's Style

The Sart and Fine Ties for Suiting from Motto & Crest.

Inarguably, Dublin is not on a par with style-centres like Milan, NY, London or Paris but that's not to say Irish style is nothing of interest. For such a small nation, we've always punched above our weight and in the sartorial stakes, it's no different. Thus, hearing that The Sartorialist was planning a brief sojourn in our currently quite cold capital, wasn't that surprising but still news that induced excitement for myself and a lot of others.

Yesterday, myself and friend, C, made our way to Dundrum's Harvey Nichols to toast fashion's favourite streetstyle photog's first book ever. Like any Irish soirée worth its salt, it involved rivers of champagne, some aural pleasantness provided by some of Dublin's best DJs and stellar company. The Sart, himself, was late due to dinner-engagements but when he did arrive (no fanfare...think the crowd was too engrossed in champagne-guzzling...no bad thing) myself and Cat of Offshoot ever-so-nonchalantly (not) approached the man himself for a bituva chat and an obligatory congratulations.

Oh and the rumours are true, he's more than charming....

Anyway, the crux of this post was neckwear, not nattering with the fashion cognoscenti. When introduced to one of Cat's friends (the lovely Anna, otherwise known as the girl with the best blonde asymmetric bob in Dublin), I was asked why I didn't wear more bowties. I didn't really have an answer, but it's probably due to the dearth of decent bowties available. Neckties, on the other hand, have a new quality purveyor.

Motto & Crest, independent and British through-and-through, was founded by Christopher Moyle when he identified the lack of classic British club- and college-inspired neckwear on the market. By working with local manufacturers and making use of traditional techniques, Moyle has debuted a line of v. wearable yet highly distinctive ties.

^ First Form: Alfredstone (left) and Mellstock (right)

^ Black Tie: Poole (left) and Prince (right)

The Black Tie collection has me hooked. From the Prince (black silk satin with a panel of black suiting wool) to the Poole (silk satin with a panel of black leather), it's classic with a v. luxe, v. gothic twist. For collegiate with a more geometric severity, check out First Form.

Images from Motto & Crest

The Winter Warmer - Dexter Wong for Topman LENS.

Just to warn you, the following post could degenerate into gibberish of an all-new incomprehensible level given that I fainted (flu-induced) thrice yesterday morning. I may still be discovering bruises in the most unusual of places (result of the aforementioned, obviously...) but I thought it time to get a post in before another bout of this bloody sickness strikes.

Unlike many of my mates, I don't actually fear the onset of the Autumn/Winter season. Yes, there's the biting cold, the almost ever-present blanket of darkness and bouts of mild depression but with the arrival of the drearier months, there also comes the opportunity to don your winter coat. I snapped up a navy Monsoon double-breasted overcoat during a sale last season which is still in good shape but, I'll not lie, it's unquestionably the plainer sister of the outerwear family since the below-pictured came along...

^ Note: I'm fully aware these are atrocious but flu and lack of natural light aren't exactly conducive to good photography. Also, the details are incredibly difficult to highlight without full-on blindingly bright flash tactics...

Having missed the launch of the newly re-worked Topman flagship store, I made my way to Oxford Circus post-haste the day after the mass of menswear-showing. I'd been eying-up this jacket ever since Mat from Buckets and Spades heralded the good news re: the AW09 Topman LENS collection via Twitter. It's the Dexter Wong for Topman donkey jacket. And for those of you who don't know, it's not a garment fashioned from an actual donkey (don't feel bad...I initially thought it could be true...) or any donkey parts for that matter, but rather a staple of the working man's wardrobe (or so Wikipedia reliably informs me). Beloved of labourers and skinheads, it's been around since the 19th century so it must be good for something other than looking astoundingly good. Here's hoping it wards off any further cold-related sickness, more fainting - at this stage - could probably prove fatal.

Image from Topman

Nicomede Talavera SS10: Film, Futurism, Fashion.

You might imagine an undergrad in Film Studies merely comprises a few leisurely screenings per week and then some piss-easy tutorials in which one, in a highly pretentious manner, voices an opinion on the nuances of Godard or Herzog and generally declares the joys of cinephilia. And, to an extent, it is that amazing but when the course is entirely comprised of theory and criticism, there's also a lot of reading.

^ Searching and Slap by the Bragaglia Brothers.

I've read Bazin, Wollen and Mulvey but one film artist/writer I've not happened upon is Anton Giulio Bragaglia. A futurist through and through, Bragaglia published treatises and extolled the wonders of a futurist, avant-garde approach to the arts. He also (in collaboration with his brother Arturo) created Searching and Slap - the primary source of inspiration cited by CSM undergrad Nicomede Talavera. Talavera, who's currently on his placement year, has just unveiled his first complete collection (a capsule for SS10 consisting of 14 looks).









^ Nicomede Talavera SS10



^ Another source of inspiration - a piece from Eva Hesse's Accession ii.



^ Mel Bochner's Superficial. Talavera cites Bochner's work as his starting point for the conception of the shape of his looks.



^ Larry Bell's 20" glass cube gave Talavera ideas regarding colour and tone.

Being somewhat of a cinephile, Talavera had a fan in me even before I viewed his clothing. But, while I was a fan before, I'm verging on obsessive now that I've seen the neoprene jackets and bottoms, the smart but not staid nylon shirts and the glimmering tyvek tees which remind me so much of the stars of the 20s silent cinema. While the collection is inspired by the monochrome, Talavera doesn't stop at the inclusion of black, white and grey exclusively. Rather he incorporates colour gradation which can be seen in the deep pink short-sleeve shirt (a garment which almost mimics the emphasis on process, on the advancement from a to b embodied by one work i.e. the aforementioned Searching and slap).




^ More from Talavera's debut collection.

But Talavera also returns to the traditional for inspiration, re-working classics to enhance and embellish the conventional e.g. a metallic chainmail short-sleeve sweater in midnight blue. Having been so caught up in all the LFW menswear mayhem, it would've been easy to bypass those starting out in the industry for the very first time. Talavera, however, is an artist hard to ignore.

Images from Men's Rag, Christie's, Guggenheim, Artnet and Shafe

At Long Last - LFW Part 2.

While show-attending is a more than enjoyable experience for a blogger whose primary objective is just to view some clothes and have a good time, it can become akin to the more nightmarish reality lived by professional fashion journalists and buyers when you discover you're not seated but have been allocated a standing position for many of the shows...

I expected little more since this isn't a blog on the Style Bubble/Style Rookie scale, but when respite does arrive, it's more than welcome. Satyenkumar (or whoever was PRing...) was kind enough to plonk me down on the second row to be transported to a realm of serene Spring Summery-ness. He achieved it through use of sheer Swiss Voile and tulle shirts in pastels that go pop (think bubblegum pink and lemon yellow) and lean twill trousers in a palette that ran the gamut from white to lavender.



^ Satyenkumar SS10

The menswear installations showcased a wealth of up-and-coming British menswear talent in one of the best venues conceivable - the somewhat eerie vaults of Somerset House. Highlights included getting up close and personal with the Christopher Shannon x Eastpak collab. as well as the quilted nappa leather laptop covers from H by Harris.

What followed was of course London menswear at its zenith - the MAN show, which incorporated the anatomy-centric, glitz-grotesque work of Katie Eary, the white accented-by-blue, breezy sportswear from Christopher Shannon as well as the billowing black-on-black of JW Anderson's inspired pieces and yet another exquisite offering from Topman Design.



^ Christopher Shannon SS10



^ JW Anderson SS10



^ Katie Eary SS10

Having paced past a v. fetching Peaches Geldof and Jethro Cave, I defected for a quick caffeine fix. The evening saw BStore and Tim Soar show to an audience significantly larger than any other that had been haunting Somerset House during the day. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the A Child of the Jago since the venue wasn't in the immediate area and photo coverage courtesy of the BFC has me regretting not dashing off when the Wintle show concluded. Alas.





^ A Child of the Jago SS10

For more extensive, picture-dense coverage from the menswear shows, hit up Fashion156.

Images from LFW and Fashion156