Man, I like your style: Part 1

Boy, there were some style assertive men at London Fashion Week, particularly on Mans Day.  Of course there were a lot of male models floating around the place, which was just fine with me.  However, business was business and my only goal is to find you knit wearing people.

These are the guys who I thought looked particularly cool in their knitwear not only is it their style, it is their whole attitude to creating particular or perhaps even signature styles.  This is what makes these guys looks special for me, you may not like to wear what they are wearing if you are a guy or even a girl but the great thing is that they are really doing something different.  They might be wearing the wool from a sheep but they are certainly not one of them.

[All images by Anna Red]

LFW: Blogger / Photographer Knits

Style Bubble

Fashion Blogger Extraordinaire; fantastic fashion coverage, style, food and fun.

House of Halcyon

Social fashion and style.

Cava Coma

Manchester street styles and fashion buzz.

Geeks nd Fashion

Style, Fashion and Parties.

8 and 2

Beautiful fashion photography to inspire and muse over, highly recommend a look.

I know I’m still going on about LFW I just didn’t realise how much material I collected and want to share it all with you, so it might be another week of LFW knits.

When at fashion week you naturally get to meet people, most of who are from creative backgrounds.  It’s really great to see so many people interested in fashion, which make for an exciting atmosphere.  Not only that it is a real feast for the fashion eyes, where people go all out to make a statement, look cool or simply be themselves and can only do that at an event like fashion week, because they know that they won’t be ridiculed in any way.  It is like a five-day festival of fashion love.  These are the people I came across in that time who all have exciting things going on, with blogging and photography and of course they are all wearing knit, whether in forms of hats, jumpers, cardigans, or cricket vests they all look like they know what they are wearing.  That is not to say other people don’t, I’m sure everyone knows that they are wearing clothes for most of the time, what I mean is that these guys look like they know what they are doing with their style.  If you want to see more of what they do, just click on the links for more fashion indulgence.

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}

Along came Long

This was the show where it was announced that menswear is going to have a fashion week all of its own, and it’s about time.  It was decided due to a growing amount of talented menswear designers who simply do not get a chance to show during London Fashion Week as the places are so limited for the one day.  So from June the fifteenth to the seventeenth this year there will be an official opening ceremony hosted by the Prince of Wales at St James Palace and from there-on-in we will witness a momentous day in menswear history.

The show was James Long; a great place for an announcement of such calibre, as Long being one of Fashion East veterans and one of my favourite designers of the season.  His Autumn / Winter collection was inspired by the bohemian swagger of the Rolling Stone and by Edward Burtynskys‘ photographs of quarries, depicting the wilderness enforced unto the natural environment by making quarries.  The textures in the collection certainly reflect the quarries in Butynskys’ photos as does the colour pallet of soft blacks, greys, browns, reds and burnt oranges.  The knitwear was kept classic with minor alterations in the yarns of varied thicknesses and length to suit any weather conditions.  Thick pullovers with prominent cable designs were worn on their own, v-neck cardigans  were tucked into trousers with shirts and a thin twin set sat on top of a shirt with an embellished collar.

A rounded collection with a good number of James Longs’ trademark knitwear pieces, it’s almost refreshing (at least to me) to see this much knitwear for men in a single collection, as that is something which I do not believe has been explored enough in menswear.  Perhaps with June coming up we will see more knits on the catwalk, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed until then.

There are clearer backstage images of the James Long collection in Dazed Digital right here.

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}

No One Jumper is Alike

Everyone or at least most people think that they have an individual style, which is an extension of who and what they are as a person.  It is through fashion that we are able to show all of those things instantly to the people around us, that is probably why they say that first impressions count.  If you think of all the people you meet what do you instantly remember about them? Is it really their name, if it is then wow well done and please tell me the secret, seriously.  If I only meet a person briefly and they introduce themselves the thing I am most likely to remember them by is what they looked like, which is not great if I have to meet them again and introduce them to someone else.  However, I will be able to tell you what they wore and what they looked like when I did meet them, but introducing someone as Mr Ray-Bans and green T-shirt does not go down well with most people, so I am working on resolving this.

When it comes to fashion, it is really true that no two people are alike.  Whist looking through my fashion week photos I realised that a few people were wearing the same H&M jumper, but of course each look is completely individual and I am pretty sure that none of the four people would ever wear each others’ outfit.  Bringing me to the point of style, a subject I find fascinating where different occasion, places and people would call for different outfits to suit the environment you are going to be in.  Cultural surroundings, backgrounds, origins and personality all have a big role to play as well.  That is why some people stand out and others fade in the background.  These fashion week girls and boy demonstrate the point of personal style very well in my opinion, as they are all wearing the same jumper but have styled it in they own distinctive way.  Style changes the way you look and how people respond to you, it cannot be brought; it is merely something you posses or you simply do not.

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}

London Fashion Week+end: Embellishment Whites

Before the MAN (Topman) show at the Royal Opera House.

This is a very British quite eccentric outfit, which I think really represents the youth of today.  The jumper for me is obviously the focal point, I had to add some close up details which you can just about see, I hope.  The rawness of the whole piece is fabulous, that running stitch holding some dismembered appliqué carton motifs to the jumper is very artistic and thought-provoking, for some at least.  The coloured wool sewn on freehand makes it look like the jumper grew the stitches on itself to try to patch itself together.

A totally different kind of embellishment to what you would instantly think of with beads or feathers.  The jumper is by Noki, an artist who works with customizing garments as a statement against mass production.  He reworks second-hand clothing a lot of which is branded with iconic logos, and creates one-off pieces that are totally eco-friendly.   This idea of each garment being unique is similar to the essence of couturiers’ where each item is made specifically to fit one person so they can keep and cherish it for a long time.  A fantastic idea for the throwaway society we live in today, which anyone with an old or unloved piece of clothing can recreate.  It is a kind of upcycling method, where you can merge various items of clothing to form one or perhaps make unused clothes or even other materials such as curtains to make something new like cushions, throws… also handy if you want to save some pennies.   That way you will also have your own couture piece, which you have actually created yourself.  I have linked Nokis website, perhaps it will give you some inspiration for your upcycling with a rough-and-ready touch.

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}

London Fashion Week+end: Cable Whites

A-symmetric hem line makes this oversize jumper almost looks like a cardigan which has been turned sideways.  That could be an interesting idea to explore for designers, but here it is in the form of my beloved turtle neck.  Thick and thin cables sit side-by-side in a-mix of ladders, moss stitch and rib.

Simple cable running down each side of this relaxed pullover, give it a bit of definition.

Little twist pattern all over this poncho add some texture, but the winner here is clearly the elongated fringing draping around the ends, which make this potentially plain poncho into something fun.  Yet another a-symmetric hem maybe that is the new direction knitwear is taking; I like it.

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}

Leutton Postle A/W 12 is a Picasso

A second slightly surreal Autumn / Winter 12 collection from Leutton Postle this Central St Martins duo.  The beautiful friendship between Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle is portrayed in each knitwear piece throughout the collection.  Quite literally so, with almost Cubist portraits adorning some luxurious sweaters and dresses, and in the form of masks on some models faces.  Whilst the mixed media decorations such as bobble fringing, 3-D woolly hair, patchwork and appliqué textures painted a unique picture unrestricted by trends.

The simplicity of the silhouettes made them easily wearable, unique and invitingly comfortable, exactly what you need these winter days.  Sweaters, v-necks and pullover vests were knitted the perfect length ready to be worn at any time without worrying about the rest of the outfit, as a single piece could easily form your outfit.

The collection is a crafted work of art, the only face anyone can pull when they see it is a very smiley one.

 

{All images by Alexandra Textiles}