Adieu

I think I have made the decision to move into the next life. My short lived blogger will be no more. Instead I am going to reinvent myself on tumblr. No offence blogger.

http://samuelrowe.tumblr.com/


You can expect much more of the same. But with added personality. Not as in attitude, but just more general stuff. Me kinda stuff. And lots more poor grammar and silly spelling errors.

So this is it. This must be what Test Icicles felt when they split up.



That was a very large joke.

If I was a Wintour...

I have hit a mental wall. Like usual I have run out of subject matter. Well mildly decent matter anyways. I wish I was a famoius writer and was invited to all teh parties at LDN fashion week and Paris fashion week and NY FASHION WEEK.

Instead I have to read about them in magazines and imagine. Goddamit.

On the upside this dude called Nicolo contacted me and I realy like his stuff. He has single handedly created a label called Victorian Uncut (and is a friend of those genii at 5Preview) has a really nice freshers line! The logo is especially good. Appaz they are going to do some collaborations. Excitement!

Yall should check him out and send him monies for clothes. I guess I should put some pictures up or something. I'll do a better profile oh V U some time soon though. Promise.

Too Many Sheeps.

Sorry Gracia but you have quite definately identified youself as a sheep to fashion. Absolutely no pioneering or original thought happening there. Maybe I was unlucky and this week's issue is just a bit lacking in oomph. But from what I have read there is no way I am going back to look for any advice or ideas for future reference.



Congratulations. You have given a succinct summary of what was on the high street circa two months ago (Brogues, grunge like stuff ect). Not only that but have also given us an insight into how the young socialites are managing to leach onto the industry and imprint themselves for roughly one season before falling back onto their parental assets, buying a nice house in Notting hill or somewhere equally cliché. I'm not that cynical but there are certain things that get on my nerves. A major annoyance are meeks. Be bold! Make your own decisions. Just please, please, please do not be behind on basis of your glossy mag. One last thing. These stupid hats that everyone seems to be sending down the runways are really not good. They look at best very strange and most of the time just plain stupid. STOP NOW. Before someone gets hurt.

p.s Gracia I am sorry. It must be hard producing a magazine every week and still managing to keep fresh info on the go. Oh and stop using the word next. Ping words do not make you sound young.

Wana See Something Horrific?

I won't write much, right, instead I will give you a warning. What comes next is not something to be messed with. It is a lethal mix of shoe on croc and must be feared by all. No messing people. This is the real deal so deal with it! Lock up your daughters, in fact lock everything away. It is a CROC-DECKSHOE-MASH-DEATHRAY-HELLHOLE. I'm sorry. So, so sorry.




ps Has anyone else noticed how Katy Perry actually looks like a man?!

Autumn Blues

I hate this time of year. Christmas is too far away to get excited about, yet summer has completely gone now. It's all grey skies and rainy days from here on in. But why let the weather get you down? Let's embrace this time of change and take it in our stride. ,,I'm just kidding you. Why the hell would you want to do that? It's horrific outside and there is no getting away from it. So let's look at warm things that will keep you reasonably happy this wintour.

To get under way I am going to tip my blog hat to my good friend Lowell. Last autumn he said that this year the deerhunter hat would come into fashion. I agreed with him and low and behold would you look at that: Asos have started stocking them. I reckon if you want something to keep your barnet at bay in the gale force winds or just want to keep your little auricles warm these babies are the thing for you.

Then moving down the body, onto outerwear. QUILTS. I know Silly Hoe (Daisy Lowe) and Touchmy Bum (Alexa Chung) were spotted at various festivals wearing Barbours and I already have one but what is stopping you, the fashionistas, looking like your grandad? I am currrently searching for another Barbour as mine is falling apart. Uniqlo also provide a nice lasses quilted coat that has a furry hood and is shorter. Good if you aren't into looking like Death Himself and swooping down the leaf littered streets. To cut to the chase basically quilts are the new macs. Although I reckon macs should be the dark horse of the outerwear this season.

Then to jumpers. I don't really care for them as for me jumpers are just additional layers. But if you are into them then I guess a nice childish pattern always goes down well. Teddy bears, snowflakes, whatever. Just make sure it fits and is warm. Unless you are a girl in which case baggy jumpers are actually very fetch. Although fetch is a very lame word. Once again whatever.

Moving swiftly on, tshirrrts. I have already sung 5preview's praises (ps I bought their tshirt and my god does it look good!) but I think you have to take size to extremes. If your a bit twiggy like me then let it hang off you OR keep it snug. Don't be a conservative, make like Green and go all out. And kill off the stripes unless it's Breton.

This is getting seriously long so for jeans, basically your usual super skinny fit with either high turn ups or pin rolls. Then for shoesies let's go for some Shofolk
shoes or some DM's. Anything sturdy.

There. All set and done. Roll on even further weather depression. Oh and for the record Daisy Lowe is not a silly hoe. She just happens to have an unfortunate rhyme in her name. Good bye and good night.

Is It A Man? Is It A Woman?

Is it a tumour?! Today's rant comes from my reading this month and the A/S seasonal i-D and Pop magazines last night. I know I've had a go at fashion magazines in the past but of late they have been getting better. In fact I loved the editorial in Pop and I don't usually read editorials. But back to the point, it wasn't the way the mags were written, it was some of the fashion included inside.

I'm not one to judge on appearance but some of the "fashion" I saw was just silly. To start with let's take a look at i-D. P.56, the title is 'Shape and Form: Build, make destroy. Taking a look at the two pictures below the heading it is clear to see that the two designers have clearly thought about doing all three and ended up only the latter. Giles and Junya Watanabe are the convicts up for trial. Starting with Giles.

i-D described his season's work as "sexy michelin men". I'm quite sure that that is an oxymoron. To be fair it looked like someone had given the model a dress made out of an air bed and then blown it up. I wish we were in the days when fashion all about looking a billion dollars. Not like an oversized blueberry. If I could find you a photo of it I would happily pop it down. Instead I'll move onto Junya's work before I annoy someone.

Now it was her work that got on my nerves the most. I can easily relate her work to conceptual art. Now I'm not one to be biased either but personally I find Stuckism a LOT better than the YBA's. I've drifted off subject again. In short I am not a fan of conceptual rubbish. Therefore when I saw a woman wearing what appeared to be a pair of tights over multiple tumour like growths coming out of the top of her head needless to say I wasn't very impressed. I-D described it as "sculptural face covering turbans." To me it looked like something out of Resident Evil. Utter rubbish. I mean how can you say "Oh yeah I totally get what she is getting at," because what she is getting at is NOTHING. If the film Idiocracy was real this is what fashion would be like.

On the other hand I found Pop's mixture of cheese and jewellery very refreshing. I always like their Juxtapositioning of strange items. Although some of the time it makes little sense it always makes me chuckle. Oh and i-D is worth reading. I just found a couple of articles exceptionally goriffic. I loved their interview with Stella McCartney.

Rant Over.

Henry must be kicking himself!

Mr Henry Holland, producer of fine goods and head of the House of Holland. A name that many of you will know, possibly due to the rocketing fame of Agyness Deyn, possibly because you were one of the first people to rock a slogan t-shirt. Either way if you know him or not you will definately know his work; those day-glo tops with comical and rhyming slogans about various celebrities and fashionistas.

In the early stage of their lives these tops where the cheeky wares of the well dressed and those people who are always two hearbeats ahead of the trends. Then things changed. For the worse. Somehow the tops became a national phenomena. Everyone from rich to poor, old to young was wearing them. But they certainly weren't wearing old Holland's slogans. Nope this happened to coincide with the nu-rave fever. As a result the even brighter copy t-shirts adorned things like "Frankie says rave" and the revival of "Drop beats not bombs". Just writing these makes me cringe. I can happily say I never bought a silly slogan t-shirt.

Back to subject, so now fashion had moved on. Rave was no longer a featch term to drop into a conversation nor was it seriously used as a statement. It had gained more of a tongue in cheak meaning. Well for the It kids it had. But those among us who shop at sport world and jd sports, well well well. Now they just kept it all alive. You see the tops had become their staple upper half item. So when everyone started to think Doherty had some style ideas and swapped their glowsticks for strawhats and Fred Perry poloshirts the more "sport centered" to put it nicely were keeping The House's first escapade alive.

Mr Holland, you must be kicking yourself. At least they won't be able to afford your sunglasses.

The Fantastic 5

I stumbled across these guys when seeing the Teenagers at Reading festival. Quentin (the singer) was wearing this t shirt on stage and all weekend I was trying to work out where it had come from. At first I thought it was a special edition Chanel top but upon getting home and trawling the nets I found nothing. Then by chance I found Dorian from the Teenagers' flickr.

I commened on one of the pictures where you can see it and Quentin nicely told me it was from a company I had never heard of before: 5Preview. Upon checking out their website I found that they had a whole array of brilliant monochrome tops down for beeswax. Then it turns out that my flickr comment is on their blog!

Enough yapping.. some pics to feast your eyes on.


ps im know this is a short post but its getting me in the zen state to actually write some half decent posts. Check back soon xo

There's Something About..

Fashion Writing. It sucks. I am pretty sure that in most sectors of journalism when an editor becomes an editor it is because they are prolific writers. Not simply because they can put the most exclamation marks on the end of a sentence. But it would seem that that is how most fashion writers manage to get into the business: they simply have an over dramatic writing style and thus are given a job for being 'down with the kids'. I am a kid. And they are not down with me.

For a while in my life I really enjoyed reading i-D and Pop as they seemed to be cool and up to date with trends I could actually relate to but of late I can't read a single article without cringing due to lack of personal flair and sheer boredom. I am quite sure that nu-rave is thouroughly dead and rightly so. Yet somehow the two mags mentioned earlier manage to dig up some reference to glow sticks or other crap. Surely they should be trying to update all the time like Cheekbone in Mighty Boosh!

Now I'm not trying to rewrite the rules of fashion journalism, as obvisouly I have no influence in it (just you wait) but if the afformentioned magazines could possibly become slightly more like Vice or Vogue then maybe they would keep up in the world of fashion and keep us interested. Well me at least. I'm not conddemming them, only a few of the writers. Just please, please learn to use proper punctuaion and write like your 20 not 13.


P.s Aggy Dean we need something new and clean. Like a new style. I hate it when things become over hyped and over used. I'm all for you "keeping it punk" and what not but lets try something other than the music scene. Or why not champion a new fresh face Sir/ Madame Fashion Magazines.

Rant over. I'm back in the writing swing.

Sozzards

About the lack of written communication over the past few weeks. I'll get writing soon. My excuse is that I've just been doing my GCSEs. But once they are over I'll get straight back on it.

Let's talk about sex..

Of sorts. Well talking about a man who encompasses sexuality in his very beard is definately someone worth talking about. Sebastien Tellier. He takes eroticism in music to new levels. He also happens to have great style and be more French than a baguette filled with Napoleon.

Unfotunately in this picture he is without his signature sunglasses.

That's a good starting point. His HUGE sunglasses. They are wonderful. Like staring into a void filled with piano and Tellier. He is not only an instrumentalist but has also played parts in films such as Steak, which had the original soundtrack written by himself, Mr Oizo and SebastiAn. The C.H.I.V.E.R.S, a super slick gang in the film, have these jackets. I want one. If anyone knows where to get it please let me know! But back to the fashion.

He is known for his suit wearing prowess and rightly so. Whether on stage or just relaxing he always looks on top form. Ahh enough said ebout him. Just go to one of his gigs. Then you will understand his majesty.

"There must be more to life..

..than having really, really, ridiculously good looking sunglasses". Well done Mr. Zoolander. I couldn't have put it better myself. So for this wednesday's article im going to have a look at some lush eyewear.

First it's off to the catwalk. Raffa and Linda, that being Raf Simons and Linda Farrow, collab on a set of sunnies that you can sink your pretty eyes in to.

A wonderful mix of old and new, they look like old-fashioned pilot's goggles mixed with some funky eighteees cop eyes. Mmmmmhhhmmmm

Stussy. Surfing. Sunglasses. Three words that are synonomous with eachother. I love Stussy and so with their retake on the wayfarer I thought it just to give 'em a spin on my blog.


One last butchers at a pair, so let's make it a good one ey. I guess a look at some unisex eyewear. A vintge pair of Ray-Bans. I love them. SO MUCH. But who cares. I think it's not worth saying too much about these. The picture does plenty justice.

The Miss France Award goes to

Corr. Don't you just love France. They have given us baguettes, Sebastien Tellier and The Eiffel Tower. But the latest wonder to come out of the land of the brie is French designer Bérangère Claire.

At only 28 she is part of the new breed of young designers who are setting up an ecletic mix of beauty and class. Yet it's simple. I LOVE it:) It's like Filippa K but more trendy. And less minimalist. Her first line's influences are obvious. Rednecks. The American ones. But as checked shirts, especially of the oxford kind, are very in season it appears that she has made some winning designs. If only the ones I want weren't out of stock.

Despite having a badge that has a huge resemblance with Jägermeister it still looks great. According to their website it is based on 'a hybrid of U.S. college logos and that of the "Croix de Lorraine",' which may be true may be not. It don't mater to me though 'cos she's still making tres beau vêtements. Enough of my yappin', I think it's time to wow y'all with some pictures. I'm sorry for that funny accent. I don't know what came over me.



To finish off it's the best bag I have seen in a while!

I'm Seeing Eurovision..

Words cannot do these three Eurovision outfits justice. Nor can they explain Tellier's genius. So how about some pictures instead.



Now Sebastien TELLIER. He is uber cool. I'll do a post on him.

Done and Done

Mr. Green, meet Mr. Vuitton

For this to make ANY SENSE read the post below first.

After that little number I think it's time for a rant about how eco fashion needs to get its ass in gear. It's all very well giving the workers the amount of money they deserve and 'keeping it real' but when the idea of real attracts around 0.1% of the world's population, you can't help but think that if they really wanted to make money and change the fashion world then they would aim their stuff at the mass market.

Levis have the right idea. So do H&M (even though they make rubbish clothes). Levis have released an organic cotton range. I'm not sure whether it's fair trade too. But it's a start. H&M have done the same thing but I have a sneaking suspicion that their clothes are made in grotty places.

I think it's time to name and shame some BAD COMPANIES. PRIMARK=EVIL. The only reason you can buy your clothes so cheaply is because they get them made for nout. Less than nout. Tescos is worse. They have around three times as much money as any other high street chain the last time I checked. They destroy boutiques and make it hard for new designers who want to show their individuality. And their clothes are RANK.

On the other glove, American Apparel are extremely good. They make their clothes in house in LA(X) and still keep their prices relatively low. Junky Styling. JUNKY STYLING. Genius. They take old garms and make them into new babies of loveliness. MMMMM. Nice.

This connects to my previous post, in I was reading how they took an old Louis Vuitton bag and made it into a new piece of originality. Clever stuff.

Well that's enough I think. Although the post went nowhere. I need to make a criteria next time.
Au revoir

Mr Vuitton, meet Mr. Green

I was looking over my previous posts and had the realisation that I haven't actually written about serious fashion. So it's time to combine. Louis Vuitton meets ECO FASH. Nice huh? Although I'm going to spread it over two posts. The first is on the problem with over priced fashion.

So there I was, wandering down 5th Avenue in New York when on the other side of the road I spotted a man. It wasn't the man that attracted my attentipon but his bag. Upon arriving home I searched and searched for it and finally found what I had been looking for. The Louis Vuitton Damier Geant, Citadin NM bag. It was a plain-ish black canvas satchel and I loved it. My eyes strayed to the top and I saw the price. 425 English Pounds. It still surpasses me as to how a plain-ish canvas bag can cost SO much.


It certainly is a nice bag. And I think that Louis Vuitton make certain items that are certainly original and VERY nice. Yet somehow it seems empty. Like the bag has no love. It could have been made by an oil baron or a love puppet, for me it makes no difference. The price just takes the edge off it. I know why they do it: to keep their wares indivdual and so that only a select few have them. But still...

It's the same story with so many brands too. They make their clothes and accesories for tuppance by some poor laborer in some forsaken sweat shop and then sell their clothes for 5000% of the price. It disgusts me. But we cannot just stop buying their wares. This would be even more detremntal. No instead we should introduce Fairtrade Laws.

Crocodile Hunting

It may not be sunday but why does that mean I can't be cynical about poor style choices. In fact really I should be looking at an idol of mine but I gave you two yesterday. What are you lot? Hunrgy fashion sharks or something!

Well I racked my brain and came up with something that gets on my nerves ALL the time. CROCS

Their little rubber devils can kill (see the article in The Sun, i know it's not exactly a reputable paper), they look stupid and even worse you get middle aged people in them. It's like they are trying to relive their jelly wearing childhoods. (Jellies are class)

It may appear that I have a strong dislike towards those who are more mature (yet try and act the opposite). I realise that one day I will to buy a boat or a poor sportscar and dye my hair a grim shade of blue. But until that day I will continue to bellitlle those of our elders who believe that acting half their age will cause them to actually become younger. If the wind changes direction your face does not experience rigor mortis.

Back to the croc bitching anyway. So yeah why were they invented. Like uggs they have no place in society. At least uggs are warm. If i wanted to wear badly made sandals I would go to a market. A bad one. And the price. I mean come on. TOO MUCH!

I think the only time I would accept the croc is on a small child. Then it's cute. But mulyiply their age by 10.3 and you get a person in serious need of advise. Wait no. Another time is in the home. Where no one can see you. Then you can be an 'in the closet' croc feind.

Well that's antother rant over. I leavve you with the 'Safari croc' as I would call them. If only Steve Irwin were here to wrsetle with these man-eaters.

Wait there's even a croc hating blog!
ps Uggs you're next

HORROR!

Lock up your daughters. The Psychobillies have hit the street. And they are out for blood! Like Jack the Ripper but without the rape it's the new breed of goth.

I love, love, love Ipso Facto. For their style. Yeah it's all about the style.
They have THE hair of gods. The style of gods. And the looks of Aphrodite herself. WHAT A COMBINATION. If only they could multiply. OR clone themselves.


THEN we have the KINGS of goth. They have made having a bowl cut cool and although they may have legs that could be used as toothpics they are still ULTIMATE. in fact i may have to take my jeans in further so that they are that skinny. With names like Spider Webb and Coffin Joe they have given the once night-crawling goths among us a license to bed every young maiden upon the streets.


The dickenzien ladss and laddettes are making a stir, with heavy influences on runway fashion such as Dior and Louis Vuitton (check out their new men's shizzz). I can see this sticking around, if not on the underground scene. And hey if it goes underground then I'm going to go and live on the Victoria Line.

Wednesday's Icon Watch

Just a little look at those people I deem to be worthy of IT status. Today's choice is Alexa Chung. What a darling!

Born November 5, 1983 this lovelly lass has done it all. Being scouted at 14 and then 16 she hit the Storm ranks and landed cover shoots with Elle Girl. She has been gracing our telly screens for a few years now, most famously presenting T4's Popworld (which I love), which she still does. I would talk about her boyfriend but it makes me go green with envy. If only she was a few years younger. Haha.

I happily leave her with the status of IT Girl. She certinaly deserves it.

Crimes

Okay so I've realised that you don't have to write an essay to have a good post. So I'm going to write in chunks, giving off nuggets of information.

I've also had the revalation that doing something periodically could work well. So let's start with crimes against life. Life being fashion and crimes being monstrosities and to start of the series I'm going to look at something truely bad. Not good bad but bad BAD. The Socks and Sandals look.

The look is closely associated with the Germanic Countries (no offence to those countries), although it has been seen with the more seasoned members of most countries in the world. Appearing out of the mists of time, the sock and sandals look seemed to have come as soon as socks were developed. It is possible that in ancient Greece or Rome a person had found some cloth and worn it under their sandals. From there the hideous crime began.

Now you may be wandering why there's a problem with socks and sandals. I'm not biased against anyone and if you enjoy the feeling of sweaty tootsies then go for it.But let me warn you, you look like a pedophile. Or worse you've hit your midlife crisis. Or both! Therefore my fashionable friends stay away from socks and sandals.

If it's warm and you want to wear sandals go for it. But keep those socks away. It's a remedy for sweaty feet. If it's cold then why the bloody hell are you wearing sandals in the first place! Do you want frostbite or something. Stick to proper footwear. Or none at all.

He wants your children. And thinks he's about 20. Size 20 more like.

Le Grand Opening!

Here it is!


The very first entry into what should be a nice long blog life. And what better way to start it than with a look at a four of my favourite IT boys and girls

I would do something on the new S/S collections. But that would mean hassle. Maybe later

Well let's see. I know...with Debbie Harry


She basically brought the white wayfarers to the world and is my favourite fashionably, musically, wonderfully, amazing woman. The peroxide bombshell wowed the world with her new looks and she is THE style icon of her era.



Then we have what I would class as her modern day equivalent; Agyness Deyn


She may only be in her twentiesbut this mancunian is quickly becoming the ultimate style icon. She has hit the catwalks with force and coupled with her muse and mate Henry Holland she would appear unstoppable! This girl is certainly going places.

Enough of the lasses let's go for some lads! If I could become anyone for a day then it would have to be Devonte Hynes.



The ex Test Icicles and now Lightspeed champion boi has gone from post punk nutter to the nerdy boy that your mother loves. Even so he certainly has some clothing taste and managed coin the ultra skinny jeans look before it seemed cool! I love him and although my hair will never look that good I can only hope!

Finally I thougt I'd make an ode to a band who have the geek chic look diwn to a tee! HOT CHIP (who also happen to be my favourite band)

They are the nerdiest, funniest, yet coolest band obn the planet. Huge glasses and funny moustaches. They have it all. To keep it short and sweet; nerd is good. VERY GOOD