Style Stop - Henry Holland & Debenhams want YOU.

As bold pop-art inspired Holland pursues new directions with Debenhams, this will no doubt be THE offbeat collaboration of 2010.

26 year old Henry, the fresh designer who relaunched the infamous slogan t-shirts and best friend to Manchester born eccentric supermodel Agyness Deyn is now to create an exclusive selection for high street store Debenhams. From March bold print dresses, amazing fluoro heels and his signature printed totes will be available from most stores.


As if this wasn't exciting enough, there is a bonaroo once in a life time opportunity to get YOUR face included in one of the designers prints. Released in July,  a collection will be released made up of the faces of 36 members of the public.  All you have to do is email your face it in to Debenhams at HenryBagComp@gmail.com before the end of January.


If Henry's work is good enough to recognize the royalty of fashion, i'm sure it's good enough to note you! So send in your pictures (i already have).

Vivienne Westwood's drives desolate fashion

I promised i wouldn't blog about Milan fashion week, as to not be shadowed by the hundreds of lustrous bloggers cackling about the exact same event. However, after seeing Vivienne's latest collection, i couldn't resist a fly-by commendation.


Controversial Westwood is notorious for extrovert and boundary pushing collections, however the shabby-chic scene at the Museo dall Permante building in Milan still provided an overwhelming 'close to the bone' display.


Vivienne stated the theme was inspired by a friend of her former student and now husband, Andreas Kronthaler, who runs a refugee for those without a roof. Her seductive dilly models walked down the catwalk with sleeping bags, all representing a homeless-chic appearance and some even popping out of cardboard boxes. 


The radical menswear theme which already had the audience ogling, featured a model who wore an orange boilersuit, perhaps a touch of swanky Guantanamo fashion? and an old jumper which featured as a pair of trousers. A symbol for Westwood's belief in recycling clothes, something i agree with; less is more.


The collection of clobber itself knows no boundaries, mixing both formal and showy informal designs which gives off the allusion that they were fashioned in a fantasy world. There is an extravagant emphasis on decadent fur outerwear but it's hard to pin down one particular idea within this collection, its best summed up within the press statement: "inspiration found from the roving vagrant whose daily get-up is a battle gear for the harsh weather conditions."


At the show finale, 68 year old Westood was pushed onto the catwalk on a paramedics stretcher where she received the audience's approval and applause.

Kokon To Zai get connected

Kokon To Zai, the innovative and renowned Soho boutique have at long last launched their psychedelic online emporium of animated futuristic clobber. KTZ have always produced collections of visionary clothes which are guaranteed head-turners; and now these have become accessible to a momentous amount of dilly boys and fashionista's through the best gift god could ever of given us filly's, the internet.


During the 'nu-rave' days which i was regrettably partial to, they assembled a collection of extraordinary leggings which may as well have been pulled straight from a sci-fi saga; they included silver pvc leggings & typical black leggings with a banana covered print twist. Their infamous and acclaimed leggings prevailed through the years, and become a prominent twist in their collections. KTZ leggings were even marketed on one of the UK's best selling fashion websites, ASOS.


You could only benefit from checking out their Men & Woman collections on sale now, featuring an assembly of outfits which i imagine would fit well within an Aztec fashioned secondary-school in a millenniums time or so.


KTZ ONLINE STORE - http://www.kokontozai.co.uk

The Power Of The Internet

Deaf Havana

The triumph of anti-capitalist band Rage Against The Machine making UK Christmas No.1 over Joe Mceldrey's Hannah Montana cover, demonstrated how a silent majority of people can revolutionize the music world. But is it realistic to expect that these music scene movements will materialize more than just the once?

Was this revolutionary internet crusade the start of something beautiful? or the birth of a bandwagon full of similar campaigns? Rage are known and praised worldwide for their anti-authoritarian lyrics and Joe is acknowledged for his participation on X-factor and of course, his cheesy grin. Where he delivered the common claims that 'being well known for singing' is the only thing he can envision himself undertaking as a career. 

Since Christmas the masses of groups on social networking sites appear to be captivating everyone, but amongst the internet trolling smut is a unique collective which I've fallen victim to "Friends Like These" by Deaf Havana for Valentine's Day #1!!! Deaf Havana are an English post-hardcore act who grew up writing and practicing in a members caravan and are representative to a particular scene of music which remains relatively un-seen in the mainstream culture which has reigned over the naughties.

The Facebook page is attempting to launch a movement to get the bands single to number one on valentines day, and in a brief amount of time it has accumulated thousands of supporters, ironically more members than even the bands fan page has. To achieve a top UK spot on Valentines day you would need around 70,000 sales, but even if they broke just into the top 40; this is surely another achievement for underground artists and a beacon of hope for music which might usually be dismissed.

Many are discarding this as a foolish group who have hopped on a bandwagon, but even though this claim might have some truth. Bandwagons move fast, and is there really anything wrong with gathering promotion for a band who have a lot to say?

Catch the single @ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zPmv2MC6I4

Join the campaign @ - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=224967696359&ref=ts

Cultural Stop: Keep Vintage & Instant Photography Alive. The Impossible Project.

I never intended to solely dedicate this blog to clobber & style; i also wanted to delve into the world of culture which surrounds fashion; be it music, photography and everything in between. So just on topic; running from the start of 2010 is a project which i'm fully backing, an inspirational group named 'The Impossible Project' are on a mission to bring back instant photography.

Over the past year, the impossible project have generated cackle and organised events, all about the fascination surrounded with vintage photography, and their quest to keep it alive. Earlier in the year they joined forces with fashion & trend retailer Urban Outfitters; coincidently one of my favorite shops for all things fabulousa. 

Production of analog Instant Film stopped in June 2008, and The Impossible Project are with glee to announce, that from the beginning of 2010 they are teaming up with Polaroid to re-invent and re-start production of analog integral film for vintage Polaroid cameras. So their aim isn't just to re-release, they're going to re-create, it's going to be better.

So why Vintage? Polaroid is the ultimate way to capture a moment; and watching the precious time capture & develop straight in front of your eyes. Let's face it, as much as i love my SLR, digital can be boring. With a Polaroid you can't fix and enhance pictures; you don't get a second chance. It's what makes the mistakes ever so more beautiful, plastic cameras can get broken; they can let extra light in & distort pictures. And what a wonder it is to view pictures from a distinct angle that can't be recreated with digital.

Lomography is already an ever expanding cult; i think thanks to the impossible project that Polaroid might join these leauges, similar to Vinyl records with music, you just can't beat the classics.

Join me in backing this project and i'll keep you up to date but in-case you want to look in more detail, follow this amazing group of people at www.the-impossible-project.com