Fashion: The Man

I've become increasingly intrigued by super slick menswear and stylish gentleman ever since I first stumbled upon The Sartorialist (many moons ago now...), depicting beautiful men in beautiful clothes out on the street; since the inception of London Fashion Week's day dedicated to 'The Man' and the launch of Net-a-Porter's brother site Mr Porter. My penchant is for classic mens' tailoring made contemporary, so here I give you a smorgasbord of inspiring looks, impeccable style and the subtly eccentric.

1 + 2/ The Sartorialist 3/ Style Salvage 4/ Fashionbeans 5/ The Great Divide 6 + 7/ The Sartorialist 8/ Style Salvage  9/ The Great Divide 10 + 11/ William Yan 12, 13 + 14/ Backyard Bill  15 + 16/ William Yan 

Day Trip: The Bowes Museum

On Saturday, we drove over to the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle - about an hour away from my house - to see the Vivienne Westwood shoes exhibition, which is only on for another week so I wanted to catch it before it finished!

When we got there, there was a wedding taking place in the museum and the bride and groom were having their photographs taken outside - such a spectacular venue so a good choice made by them! There was an E type Jaguar and Rolls Royce parked outside the Bowed for the wedding, so Joe got his reward for driving me all the way to the museum just to see shoes (and also a very lovely vintage red bus for the wedding party).

Unfortunately, I couldn't take any photos in the exhibition. But, it was a fantastic, if somewhat small, exhibition of some of Westwood's iconic shoes, including the shoes that Naomi Campbell famously fell off of during a catwalk show. Just wish it was on for longer, would love to go back for a second look.

Fashion: Graduate Fashion Week 2011

This time last year, I was a Fashion Communication graduate, beside myself with excitement about exhibiting my work at Graduate Fashion Week alongside other fashion design, marketing and promotion graduates from all over the country. I had the most spectacular time: I was shortlisted for the Hachette Filipacchi Media and Design Award and then only went and bloody won it! My award was presented by Erin O'Connor and the whole night is still a massive blur: after all of my hard work came the ultimate reward.

Returning to GFW this year was a bizarre experience; it was fantastic being there and actually getting to wander round the other stands and appreciate everyones work properly - last year felt like a complete whirlwind and everyone was competing against each other for industry attention. It was so good to have a different perspective and walk round at a leisurely pace enjoying the work and talking to students about their wonderful collections.

Well, I'm not biased  but for me, Northumbria's Fashion Design, Fashion Marketing & Fashion Communication stand totally stood out for me and win's my 'Best In Show.' All students' work was displayed so well and was easy to navigate; with some University's stands, I didn't really know where to start! Here are some of my favourites from Northumbria..

Charis Younger - Fashion Design


I've been following Charis for a while - she's a fellow North-Eastern lady, a fellow Northumbria graduate and this collection absolutely blew me away. Titled 'The Human Versus The Machine', Charis made amazing use of structure and contrasted this with more feminine, flowing shapes. The standout pieces for me were the grey waterfall coat (need this in my wardrobe!) and the strapless, flowing mid-length dress with unbelievably, exquisite printwork.
Follow Charis on Twitter - @Charisimo

Jennifer Broom - Fahion Design


Another fellow North-Easterner really hit the mark for me. Again, structure was contrasted with looser shapes and I absolutely loved the harnessing detail across the collection. The standout pieces for the me was the grey, flecked coat and the fabulous accessories. The somewhat reminded me of Rodarte's A/W 2011 collection - inspired by Prairie girls and with references to the Wizard of Oz.
Follow Jennifer on Twitter - @jai_bee

Other standout work from Graduate Fashion Week in pictures.

The menswear at GFW was a complete standout for me - lots of mens outerwear and alot of students' work was based around exploring the outdoors, so they created fantastic, durable pieces.

Other favourites were the accessories at the ECA stand and Nottingham Trent's stand design; fantastic visual merchandising.

Catwalk images © 2011 Christopher Moore Limited - catwalking.com

All other images © Alice Mary Barnes, 2011

Fashion: Topshop Secret Store

The world has gone into floral overload. My last post celebrated the blossom trees of Oxfordshire, and this week we've had the opening of the Chelsea Flower Show and now, the launch of Topshop's Secret Store; a pop-up shop based in the London and New York flagship stores, where fashion is reinvented through the flowers. This Meadham Kirchoff and Wild at Heart collaboration features specially commissioned pieces by designers including Michael Van Der Ham and Unique archive pieces. It's only open for 2 weeks, so get down quick! I'm hoping to catch a glimpse when I'm in London for Graduate Fashion Week, but for now, here are some photos to whet your floral appetite.

Photos from Topshop.com

Inspiration: Daydream, I fell asleep and met the flowers.

When I was in Oxfordshire visiting my sister around a month ago, I took these photos of the blossom trees in her little village; everything I love about Spring. Also, the weekend I visited saw the annual Ducklington Fritillary show taking place. I love village events like this...tea and cakes in the village hall, Church members selling souvenir tea towels...just brilliant. Properly English.

© Alice Mary Barnes, 2011.

Fashion: Mulberry Love

I love everything British and can't shout about luxury British/English brands enough, so naturally, I am a lover of Mulberry. Since Emma Hill took over as Creative Director, the brand has flourished and become the hot brand to wear or carry but without losing any of it's quinessential Britishness. So, you can imagine my sheer delight when I heard that Mulberry have released a publication celebrating their 40th Anniversary. I am a huge fan of luxury print publications (I even made my own and won a prestigious award for it!) and think enough can't be said for print over digital. When I heard the release date, I immediately put in my order and on Friday when I arrived home from work, a very special package had been delivered! The imagery is to die for, all taken by photographer Venetia Dearden and the design and attention to detail of the whole publication is just, well, exquisite.

The book came so beautifully wrapped and contained these fantastic little pink slips in between the layers of tissue paper - Wizard is definitely my favourite. It also came with an abundance of badges, stickers and a lovely, very personal, little notecard. 

On another Mulberry note, a few weeks ago I visited the designer outlet, Bicester Village, where I obviously had to pay a trip to the Mulberry store there. I was surprised at how much current season stock they had, and because I've been a good girl with money recently, I decided a treat was in order...

I can't describe how much I adore my oversized Alexa - it is just perfect! It was the last black oversized Alexa they had left in the Mulberry outlet, so I'm lucky to have gotten in there when I did!

All images © Alice Mary Barnes, 2011