Swedish label Tiger of Sweden has posted a video on YouTube where they show how their suits are made. On their blog they explain that the process from cutting the fabric to a final suit involves over 300 phases – that’s 19 times longer than what it takes to make a pair of jeans!
British luxury brand Burberry will soon launch a new social network site. According to Drapers, the site will feature pictures of users wearing Burberry trench coats (it’s true what they say, there is a social network for everything these days). The site can be found on >>artofthetrench.com.
If I could choose a Burberry trench coat to wear for this project, I’d definitely choose the limited edition trench coat they’ve created in collaboration with London department store Liberty for the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week.
What I like the most about the coat is the added design detail underneath the collar – the purple lining and the adjustable buckle strap. The coats will go on sale on the 18th of September, but considering that they’ll cost £650 and will be made in a limited run of only 25, me getting my paws on one of these is highly unlikely.
Photo sources: Burberry and Selectism
Hmm, a more serious blog post than usual this time. The Swedish Agency for the Control of Chemicals has found that many jeans sold in Sweden contain high levels of toxic substances. Most of the news articles I’ve found about this are in either Swedish or Norwegian, but I found a short summary in English on Radio Sweden’s website.
The brand insprectors detected the anti-mould chemical dimethylfumarate, DMF, exceeding the legal limit by 500 percent. The chemical is an allergenic and can cause eczema. According to NRK (article is in Norwegian) the agency found the chemical in jeans models by the following brands: Nudie, Lee and Wrangler. Nudie has issued a press release about this announcing that they’re recalling the jeans from the market. The model they found the chemical in is called Average Joe Clean Blue. The company urges anyone who has any questions about this to direct them to info@nudiejeans.com – however, no statements from Wrangler or Lee, as of yet
Last year, Swedish underwear label Björn Borg experienced a similar situation when tests showed that some of their underwear models contained high levels of the chemical nonylphenolethoxylate. Both nonylphenolethoxylate and dimethylfumarat are now banned by the EU.
Sad to see this happen to a brand I really like, but glad to see they’re acting responsibly!
Photosource: Nudie Jeans
Maybe it’s because of all the recent hype surrounding The September Issue, Valentino: The Last Emperror and The Day Before, but as of lately I have a new addiction – watching fashion documentaries. What I love about documentaries like the ones listed below is that you get to see what things are really like behind the scenes. You get an insight into how the designers work and what inspires them. Here’s a few of my favourites from YouTube:
BBC: The Secret World of Haute Couture >> Playlist
Loïc Prigent: Signe Chanel >> Playlist (episode 1 – 5)
Loïc Prigent: Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton >> Part 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09
Masters of style: John Galliano >> Playlist
Vivienne Westwood >> Part 01 | 02
Yves Saint Laurent >> Part 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06
Although I do like to watch fashion reality shows and find them entertaining, I find it kind of sad that a lot of people seem to think that reality shows like Project Runway is what fashion is really all about. As Loïc Prigent told Maya Singer in a recent interview:
I’ve seen a little bit of these reality shows, and whatever they’re about, they’re not about fashion. Competition, making fun of people, but not fashion. It’s very hard to convince people to do a real fashion show— there’s a prejudice against fashion people in TV, even in France.
I really hope that the recent popularity of the fashion documentary genre will help change this and that people realise that there’s more to fashion than creating dresses out of chocolate wrappers (heads up to Hershey’s for the great PR effort though!).
Photo source: NY Magazine/Christopher Anderson
Some people visit an art gallery when they need inspiration, some read a book and some go travelling. Ever since I first starting doodling design ideas in my sketchbooks, I’ve been making playlists with “songs to design by” – songs that inspire me, help me keep focused and get my creative juices flowing. Some times it’s the lyrics, other times the beat, a certain composition or a catchy chorus or hook. So, for this #musicmonday I thought I’d post some of these songs.
For those not familiar with the #musicmonday concept, this is how it works. Every monday twittering music fans post their song of the day. The tweet has a link to the song and the hash tag #musicmonday.
Photo source: badjonni
Earlier this week I joined Independent Fashion Bloggers, a community for…well, independent fashion bloggers. Once a week they ask members to submit their best post from the past week. An editor then chooses the 20 best entries and highlights them in the weekly roundup. I submitted the Mondrian-entry and it got selected! Big thanks to Debutante Clothing who is this week’s editor.
Edited by Debutante Clothing
As the summer winds down and I start planning my Fall wardrobe, I’m overwhelmed by thoughts of how to create a wardrobe on a budget. This week, we have a ton of posts on how to find great style within a budget. Fashion Pulse Daily gives us the top denim looks under $50 and The Recessionista is reporting Anna Wintour is heading to Macy’s for Fashion Night Out. Enjoy!
A couple of weeks back Denimaniac made a post about Bulgarian designer Petar Petrov’s Autumn/Winter 2009 collection. Out of all the pieces, I really like the yellow/white and pink/white gradient jeans a lot.
They reminded me a bit of the white/dark green trousers Olivier Theyskens is wearing in this picture from the Jak and Jil blog.
According to the comments section they’re by Maison Martin Margiela. I can’t find any pictures of them from any of the label’s runway shows that confirm this though. Instead I think they look more similar to the ones the model is wearing at 2:50 in this video of the Petar Petrov show.
Either way, they look great and are definitely on my wishlist for this season!
Photo source: Denimanic, Jak and Jil
