An inspiration - Daniel Hanson

An afternoon sat in Manchester Metropolitan University's massive lecture theatre, and I heard the stories of some fantastic and interesting people including the amazing Daniel Hanson. The Association of Suppliers to the British Clothing Industry Conference was a great afternoon and I will never forget the memorable people we heard from.

Daniel currently designs luxurious and beautifully made dressing gowns for retailers such as Harrods, Selfridges London and Barneys New York. His ever growing celebrity clientele makes Daniel's history even more unbelievable. The hard working and extremely talented man with his company based in Nottingham, yes Nottingham! so close to home, is a true inspiration to anyone!

Daniel was once Nominated for Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council in 1984,  been part of a wide variety of subsequent high profile Commercial Design Commissions which included working with the International Wool Secretariat in Paris and, as Non-Automotive Design Director for Jaguar Car Company. He also lectured at The Royal College of Art during these years; Daniel was finally appointed as Principal Lecturer and Course Leader in Fashion Design at Nottingham Trent University in 1989. Before long he realised that the satisfaction he gained from his work was from manufacturing side of the design industry was too great to ignore. Then, the company 'Daniel Hanson' was born. 

'Daniel Hanson' is recognised for producing the best nightwear in the world! The garment prices range from £1,500 to £7,500 for a hand embroidered cashmere gown. The company's biggest market is in the USA. Elton John, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta Jones and many more are major customers of Daniels. Daniel is also art director at company 'VOSSEN FROTTIER' this a toweling company, the interest to me behind this is that Daniel said he loved designing towels as he feels they're a 'blank canvas' and loves to be creative.

I would tell anyone to read more about Daniel and learn more about how talented is, and if you can afford it - buy one of his pieces! They are amazing!

#watchthisspace CREATURES OF THE WIND

Chicago based design duo Shane Gabier and Chris Peters of Creatures of the Wind have no fear when it comes to textiles!

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The pair treat materials, proportion and silhouette very democratically.  There's equal aesthetic value and beauty to be found in lots of different materials, be it a deadstock lame' or a couture, hand-made lace. By putting these materials next to each other, they feel they can create an entirely new context.
 
There's a wide range of women who wear their clothes, they have customers who are more mature, conservative women who put their designs together in a very ladylike way, but the clothes also appeal to much younger girls with really crazy style, who can wear it in a super punky, personal way. Shane and Chris feel that anyone with a strong sense of self can easily wear their clothes.  

When asked 'what can we expect from the Creatures of the Wind label in the next 3-5 years?' The duo replied 'We're starting to work toward developing bags, and in general, we just want the collection to keep growing.  We'd really like to expand the knits, add sunglasses, other accessories, that sort of thing.  We've got specific stores in mind that we'd love work with, and our goal for the next few years is just to grow the company organically, make careful decisions about stores and press, and keep enjoying what we do.'

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The idea behind their Autumn/Winter collection entitled ‘The Secret Commonwealth’, comes from the book of the same name, written by Reverend Robert Kirk in 1691.  The book is Kirk’s account of his extensive research of fairies, and included personal accounts of people who claimed to have encountered them. Kirk believed that the gateway to the land of fairies was through a specific tree on a hilltop; as the legend goes, this tree is said to now contain Kirk’s imprisoned spirit, after the fairies took his life in retribution for revealing the details of their world. Shane and Chris wanted to portray the idea of being in two world rather than the obvious of another fantasy collection.

Creatures of Winds' collections inspiration always begins with some sort of abstract concept, from which they look for some sort of tangible representation. They look at subcultures, youth cultures, folklore. Music is a big inspiration for the pair, always important in the development of every collection.     

They are currently focused on Spring 2013 right now, and are already developing ideas, colors, fabrics, for Autumn/Winter 2013. I can not wait to see what they next have in store for us...

VODAFONE London Fashion Weekend 2013

Over the moon to have booked my tickets for London Fashion Weekend for the third year running!
http://www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk/

Hope to see everyone there! 

Who looked good at the British Fashion Awards this week?

It is fair to say everyone who attended the British Fashion Awards on Tuesday night all looked amazing!
The red carpet was covered in beautiful designer outfits from Roksanda Ilincic wearing her own award winning design to Alexa Chung in a black embroidered sleeveless Simone Rocha dress from the Spring/Summer 13 collection.



Alexa Chung with her British Style Icon Award,
third year running!

The night ran smoothly and some incredible people won the awards they deserved! One of my favourite shoe designers Manolo Blahnik won the Outstanding Achievement award, whilst the stunning Cara Delevingne picked up the Best Model award.

At The Savoy, Stella McCartney won the esteemed Designer of the Year award while also picking up the Designer Brand award on behalf of her eponymous label, recognising a momentous year for the designer in 2012. 

Roksanda Ilincic in her own design

 The Menswear Designer award went to Kim Jones for Louis Vuitton,  a leading British designer of ready-to-wear and bespoke tailoring who has been instrumental in enhancing men's fashion in the past year.

A massive well done to all those who picked up awards and looked gorgeous at the British Fashion Awards 2012!