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This Makes Me Think

Qing — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:35:17 +0000

With Milan switching to Paris, the annual twice fashion week is closing to an end again. I’ve recently seen this image in London Metro newspaper and couldn’t help but scan it and share it here. Because it really makes me think again.

The pink and white stripy T-shirt and over-washed jeans. It all seems very familiar and reminds me of Italian designer duo DSquare2′s collection (which you have a peek below here.)

But when I read on, the story was quite shocking - Children and old people had to edge along a narrow cliff-side path to collect water as drought grips their village. They live in one of the worst-hit areas of China, where almost all the crops have failed as streams have dried up. And they are forced to make daily trips along the perilous track to find drinking water in caves!!

While some of us are raving about what to wear next season, some other human beings in the world are worrying about food and fresh water… This makes me think again, but we can’t help with the buzz of newness flashing over every single season, can we?!

Indoor winter shoot

awais — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:29:37 +0000

The other day when I was emptying my phone’s memory card, I came across these pictures that I took at a shoot where I was the assistant stylist a few weeks back. As last time, the fashion editor for the shoot was my friend John Ødegård Jensen and the photographer was Andreas Kleiberg. The models were Jørn (?) and Andreas’s assistant, Trond.

The shoot is an “outdoor shoot”, but as you can see all the pictures were taken inside a studio. The models were wearing a harness and were suspended from the ceiling of the studio so they could do different poses in the air. When the pictures get printed in the magazine, however, Andreas will use his magic photoshop skills and make it look as if everything is outdoors. Ah, the wonders of technology.

More pictures after the jump

First outdoor shoot

awais — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:08:47 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I worked on my first outdoor photo shoot. All the shoots I’ve assisted on up until now have been indoor ones. The location for the shoot was Kjeller – an airport about 30 mins outside Oslo. Once again, the fashion editor I was assisting was John Ødegård Jensen, the photographer was the very talented Andreas Kleiberg and the model du jour was André Bentzer. André has previously done campaigns for Paco Rabanne, American Eagle, Dolce & Gabbana and Dsquared². He has also walked for several major labels, including D&G and Zegna.

André doing his Matt Damon impersonation. John and I agreed that the resemblance was uncanny.

More pictures after the jump

It was a weird feeling setting up everything outdoors. It was a bit cloudy and for a second I was scared it would start raining – luckily the weather remained okay most of the time and none of the clothes got wet or dirty.

Improvised dressing area. The rack has clothes from Ljung, Filippa K, Tommy Hilfiger and Whyred - to mention a few.

Vintage Louis Vuitton soft shell suitcase. We had a quite a few nice bags from both Louis Vuitton and Mulberry for this shoot, unfortunately I didn't get around to taking pictures of them.

An improvised make-up station.

André, getting ready for the first picture.

Andreas and his assistant Trond, hard at work.

John adjusting André's tie.

A veteran plane at the airport.

Although it was really cold and I was feeling a bit under the weather, having had a fever the night before, the shoot was fun. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take that many pictures this time as my iphone ran out of battery power halfway through the shoot. The magazine with the fashion editorial will be out in December some time. I will try to post a link to the series once it has been published. The magazine with the pictures from the previous shoot will also be available in a few days. Will try to post links to those pictures as well.

Fashion Windows: Selfridges – a work in progress October 2010

Qing — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:37:58 +0000

After dinner at Busaba Ethai just behind Selfridges last night, we spotted lots of people wheeling props and trees on to the road. Suddenly I realised I was now witnessing how Selfridges make their amazing windows. This was the first time I had actually seen them making the windows, witnessing a work in progress.

This is the east side of Selfridges, people were gathering at the corner window display as I walked up towards them.

A little peak of the funny Lacoste window. Starting from the east side corner and walking up to the front, I still couldn’t figure out what the main theme was this time…

…I got even more confused when I saw the Havaianas display in the next window, thinking to myself -’what are they trying to build?’

The visual merchandising people were working inside the window display. They were communicating with team members outside via mobile phones. Ah, technology. Wonder how they used to do this back in the day.

I really thought this was going to be a regular window until I saw staff installing tons of pine branches and star lights around the windows. I suddenly realised that this was their christmas display! The christmas displays at Selfridges are always spectacular. I felt lucky to be witnessing this work in progress. Although this was the christmas display, I still couldn’t figure out the main theme this time though.

TOYS?!!

…and more TOYS??

…and more…

even MOOOOOOORE….and stuffed TOOOOYYYYS….

…and…A FUN HOUSE!

While all the other fashion department stores here in London are digging their brains, trying to come up with a spectacular and extravagant fashion theme for their christmas windows, Selfridges has done it once again and surprised everyone – with a series of christmas windows dedicated to toys. Who said toys are only for children? The windows had all sorts of toys, suitable for children of all ages – from 4 to 84. There were intelligent toys, cute toys and quirky toys – something for every taste. It’s true, we are all being very generous when it comes to our own children and our own immature minds!

Behind the scenes at a fashion shoot

awais — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:50:12 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to work as an assistant stylist at a fashion shoot for the Norwegian edition of an international men’s lifestyle magazine. While at the set, I took a couple of “behind-the-scenes-pictures”. During the shoot I posted a few of these to twitter, but I thought I’d gather them all up in a proper post.

The editorial we were shooting was six pages and we had fourteen different outfits. The first thing we did was to hang up all the clothes, outfit by outfit, and lay out all the shoes and accessories before starting the shoot. We also had some extra clothes with us in case of last minute changes or adjustments to the outfits.

The stylist I worked with was my very good friend John Ødegård Jensen who’s a well known stylist in Norway and has worked as fashion editor, stylist and journalist for magazines such as Elle, Mann and FHM. The photographer we worked with was Einar Aslaksen, who has worked with NO Magazine, Oslo Fashion Week and Platinum Magazine, to mention a few.

More pictures after the jump

Before starting the shoot, Einar made a bunch of sketches with ideas for poses and the composition for each shot. In the meantime, I helped John prepare the outfits and write up notes with descriptions (labels and prices) of all of them. We then selected what outfit to use for each picture.

The models we used for this shoot are identical twins. We styled them differently in all the photos though. No matching sailor suits or sweaters here!

For some of the pictures, we used both of the models together, whilst others were solo shots.

Einar hard at work behind the lens. The camera was linked to a mac so we could view the pictures whilst he was shooting.

In between shots, John and I would adjust the clothes and add or remove different items or accessories.

After the shoot, we sat down with the photographer and looked through and selected the pictures that will be printed in the magazine.

…and just like that the day was over. The shoot lasted a little bit more than eight hours, but it didn’t feel that long though. After finishing the shoot and selecting the pictures, we packed down all the clothes to take back to the closet at the magazine’s office.

The actual images from the shoot turned out great, both John and Einar are soo talented and nice to work with! I can’t post the pictures before they’ve been published, but I will try to post links to them once the magazine is out, which will be sometime in November.

Press week unpacking madness

awais — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:12:49 +0000

This week is ‘press week’ in Oslo. Press week is basically a collaboration between all the fashion and lifestyle PR agencies in the city where we present next season’s products to fashion editors, journalists, stylists and (some) bloggers. All the different agencies have dedicated days and time slots where they present the new products and collections and ours is on Thursday afternoon. The past couple of days we’ve been busy taking down the previous collections and unpacking huge (read: humongous) boxes filled with new products. There’s stuff and boxes everywhere!

I took these snaps earlier today whilst packing and unpacking things. I will try to take some more pictures tomorrow and on the day of the event and post them on Twitter, so stay tuned for updates

Row upon row with shoes, sneakers and boots...

...box after box filled with shades and goggles...

...and rail after rail with jackets!

Anarchy in NYC?

awais — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:12:42 +0000

Models lining up backstage at Duckie Brown

Duckie Brown’s autumn/winter 2010 collection is probably the one I like the most so far from the New York shows. The collection has punk and military influences – wool fabrics, tweed, chunky knits, tartans, cropped skinny trousers and combat boots.

GQ describes the collection as “young skinhead rebels crash an English department faculty party” – couldn’t have said it better myself.

View Full Album

Photo sources: Models.com and Andrew Thomas for GQ/Style.com

“Tonight Matthew…”

awais — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:27:13 +0000

Note to self: Don’t check your RSS-reader and you will end up missing out on gems like this video from SHOWstudio – the video was filmed by Mr. Nick Knight himself, featuring the amazing Raquel Zimmermann dancing around in a Gareth Pugh dress to Lady Gaga’s Pokerface.

SHOWstudio has also posted a video on their site of Gareth Pugh making the dress. Very interesting to watch and it made me think about being back in the studio at fashion school! Thanks to Ashluxe for writing about it and that way bringing it to my attention. Read more about it >> here.

Live Show – Dolce & Gabbana A/W 2010/11

awais — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:31:03 +0000

I really love how more and more fashion houses are now starting to stream their fashion shows online. The Dolce & Gabbana Menswear show in Milan is about to start in a few minutes and fashion lovers can follow it online at this site.

Right now they are showing what’s going on backstage on the live feed. The models lining up, Domenico Dolce putting on the last touches.

The label is celebrating their 20th anniversary with menswear and apparently the show will feature 100 looks on 100 models. Emporio Armani, Burberry Prorsum, Prada and Alexander McQueen are other houses that will stream their A/W mens shows this season. Go watch it now!

Update: A video from the show can now be watched by following the same link. Also make sure to check out Alex Fury’s brilliant review over at SHOWstudio.

Photo source: Screenshots from dolceandgabbana.com

Making of a suit

awais — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:05:29 +0000

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!