Fashion Fix: 'Terry de Havilland for Liberty' inspired print covered wedges

photo from aurelia skincare

How many of you have been watching the fly-on-the-wall doc, Liberty of London?

I've got to say, when the first series cam out, I was dubious about seeing a warts and all reveal of one of my favourite escapist spots. However, I didn't need to fear this series, when the wonderful shoe designer and maker Terry de Havilland was featured in a collaboration with the store and their 49,000 prints!

It was a thrill to get a tweet favourited by the legendary store in the meantime!

Terry's trademark wedge sandal was given a Liberty makeover and here are some of my favourites, available now in store.

Purple Totem Elephant Print Wedge Sandals. The colours are perfect for Autumn Winter and would work perfectly with heavy denier black tights and the season's favourite fabrics; leather and velvet.

Red is my favourite colour at the moment and the Red Daisy Mitsi Peep Toe Sandals are one to purchase now and wear them long into next year.

The beautiful, bold teal and turquoise of this pair perfectly sum up the collaboration of 70's trend king de Havilland and the eccentric, timeless beauty all Liberty prints embody, regardless of the year of their birth. Teal Totem Marky Wedge Sandals

But this would not be Fixuplookchic without an alternative suggestion whilst you are waiting, saving up to be able to afford such luxuries. A year back, I took my own favourite Liberty Print fabric and adorned a pair of navy suede heeled boots. You can do the same with my tutorial below.

I've been looking forward to getting my toes into these autumn stunners. The embellished heel was all over the place last year but there weren't too many autumnal day alternatives. That is all about to change.

You will need: 

• A pair of shoes with block heels 
• Lightweight fabric, enough to cover each heel. We used Silk. 
• Pattern paper 
• Fabric scissors 
• Paper scissors 
• All purpose glue 

How to do it: 

1. Make a pattern for your heel using pattern paper, allow for a small seam allowance to be folded under. 
2. Trace around the pattern onto your fabric and cut out. Make one for each heel 
3. Dab allpurpose glue onto a small section of the heel (starting at the base and working upwards) and glue the fabric in place, turning under any raw edges, and tugging it taut so there are no crinkles.   

TOP TIP- You will find this works best on block heels.

Shoes from: New Look
Fabric from sewbox

Lest We Forget

We finally went to see the Poppies at the Tower. I'm so glad we did. 

I was very proud to design a World War One themed play this year as part of the National Trust's commemorations. It was set at Morden Hall Park and was an outdoor promenade (the audience get up, walk about and follow the action) performance which followed the lives of real people who lived and worked at the park, the gardeners in particular. Part of my design brief was to design and create some kind of monument that could look like it was made by one of the young gardeners of the time, to mark the passing of his brother on the front line. 

I was inspired by the soaring, dynamic shapes of the war memorials that have been built since, but wanted to get a hand made, human sized humility to my monument. The idea quickly formed to create a monument out of old gardening tools and utensils. Various friends and family members gladly off-loaded the rakes and spades that were rusting in their potting sheds. 

Soon I had a good handful and enlisted the help of set builder Dean Sudron to construct the monument. 

I found a ready-made planter at the Bristol Wood Recycling Plant that would fit the structure perfectly. The audience would then be invited to 'plant' a paper poppy in the earth surrounding the monument.

 As well as designing the monument and set and costume, I was also given the privilege of designing an exhibition space that held further information on the lives and times of the people of Morden Hall Park

Exhibition Space

Finally in place in the Stable Yard

Decadent Fashion Shoot, The Bristol Magazine

I have been styling a fair few shoots over the past few months, but images are always kept under wraps for a wee while whilst they get put into magazines or published with clients. We all have to wait to unveil our latest work un util we get the green light. Many green lights have recently flashed so I can give you a few behind the scenes tours!

You all saw the male model test shoot we did with James King at the MilkThistle, well I headed back there to style the Christmas Party wear edit for The Bristol Magazine with Editor Jenny Hayes

setting up downstairs at the milk thistle to get the below shot:

 Dress £450 LK Bennett, shoes £495 Christian Louboutin both at Harvey Nichols

Andre Regini

Sarah of the Grayling team carefully tending to the Christian Louboutins!

I won't give too much away, the magazine is out in the shops, and I'll also get some lovely hi res images to share with you fully, but I couldn't resist sharing my favourite look that I put together:

Jacket £220 Pinko, skirt £110 Finders Keepers, shoes £225 LK Bennett all at Harvey Nichols.

Andre Regini

getting the shot

I couldn't resist one masculine tailoring look for the front cover, again all from Harvey Nichols, this deep green velvet smoking jacket set off a wonderfully strong and sexy look which won't have you shivering over the festive period.

Jacket £495 Joseph, shirt £195 and trousers £195 Winser London, shoes £695 Christian Louboutin and ring £195 Alexander McQueen all at Harvey Nichols.

Andre Regini

Hair by Noel Halligan and team at SeanHanna, Makeup Brioney Cleverly at Shu Uemera in Harvey Nichols.

A remembrance fashion story: Brian Stonehouse: Artist, Soldier, War Hero, Fashion Illustrator.

The Checked Suit, No.1. Gouache, ink and fibre-tip pen on grey paper. Shaped for layout. For an American fashion magazine, probably Vogue, circa 1955. Provenance: The artist’s estate. Stamped ‘Stonehouse Estate / A and H’ verso.

There is a new fashion exhibition opening in London this week: It features the work of Spy turned fashion illustrator Brian Storehouse MBE.

The second World War broke out on his graduation, with Storehouse joining up to the Royal Artillery in 1939. His artistic credentials came in handy, as his cover as a spy was that he was a french art student. He was shortly discvoered and arrested, enduring two and a half years in prison camps.

Anna Brady, Diary editor at 'Antiques Trade Gazette' writes:

'He was a prisoner for the next two and a half years, often tortured and placed in solitary confinement and incarcerated in three French prisons and five concentration camps, culminating in Dachau. While in Natzweiler extermination camp, he recognised four well-dressed women being marched to their deaths in the crematorium. Haunted by their faces, a year later he was asked to sketch them – his drawings matched the photographs of four missing SOE agents.'

His drawings from the war ended up in the Imperial War Museum

A chance meeting with with Harry Haller, a socialite American major, saw him move to America in 1946 and became a portrait painter. 

Anna Brady again:

'His work caught the eye of Jessica Daves, an editor at Vogue, who thought his style perfect for fashion. In 1952, Stonehouse was the first new illustrator to be taken on by Vogue since 1939. Under Daves as editor-in-chief, he worked alongside the much better known "Eric" (Carl Erickson) and René Bouché.'

The Red Evening Skirt. Pencil, ink and gouache. Signed. For Vogue, circa 1955. Provenance: The artist’s estate. Stamped ‘Stonehouse Estate / A and H’ verso. 23x13.5 inches.

We all look back at the 1960s as the moment when fashion all changed. The younger generations no longer dressed in the image of their parents. Music equally broke the mould and photography came to the fore. Of course, photography was an issue for a fashion illustrator, who up until then was the first to be able to communicate the new trends to the public.

As a costume designer and fashion illustrator, I have always adored how the shapes and energy created through pen and ink -or any other artist's choice of medium- win over any fashion photo. The presence of a drawn image has a quality that allows the reader to imagine themselves wearing the items in question.

A box of Stonehouse's drawings have been recently rediscovered and have been pieced together with the letters and memorabilia they contained into a book, Brian Stonehouse: Artist, Soldier, War Hero, Fashion Illustrator.

"At a glance Stonehouse's work is fluid and decorative, but essentially much like any other fashion illustrations of the era. But to look again with a knowledge of the horrors he witnessed through the war, gives the drawings a new poignancy, the languid models in their couture threads so far removed from those four doomed women whose image haunted him in 1944. µ"

Anna Brady

'Brian Stonehouse – Fashion Illustrations' is at Abbott and Holder Ltd, London, until 23 December. Anna Brady is Diary Editor at 'Antiques Trade Gazette'

Images taken from Abbott and Holder  website

Halloween in half an hour

Mean Girls 'sexy' Halloween photo courtesy calibermag.org

Hallowe'en. The pressure is on for a costume designer. Especially when that means coming up with not one but two costumes when your boyfriend's in tow.

I will admit now that we had all of half an hour before driving down to Devon for what was a disturbingly brilliant haunted house party. It was an abattoir. a full blown, animal carcass, plastic sheeting on the walls, straw on the floor, blood everywhere abattoir. And that's not even mentioning the UV room *shudders*.

So, what was lying around the studio this year?? Ant managed to create a whole character around a rather eccentric bow tie and became Giles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame. We later found out that the real Giles doesn't even wear a bow tie but hey ho.

photo courtsey of dvdbash

I unearthed a ridiculous 1980's purple velvet spotted number (scary enough on its own) which has come in handy more times than I'd like to admit: it has dressed an Olivia in Twelfth Night and been styled onto a Model in Carly Wong's Hot Air Balloon Shoot.

Ali Barkley behind the scenes on the Hot air balloon shoot

I'd once worn it to an American Psycho party but that was a few years ago and it was tight back then. Fortunately I had eschewed bread and food in general for the days leading up to said party and JUST ABOUT SQUEEZED IN TO IT ONLY IF I DID SHALLOW BREATHING.

it fits!

but what was I? Team it with a comptoir des cottonniers 'puffy shirt' (one for the seinfeld fans)and all of a sudden I could possible pass for a vampire...maybe even Buffy the Vampire (she eventually got bitten in my story) But as someone highlighted for me at the party, "surely you mean Buffy from the 80's film, with that hair?". Yes folks, that hair in those photos has needed little back combing, it's natural, I know I know.  Even my silk scarf pillow case project hasn't really helped.

A few cheap gems and eye liner from Trago Mills (!) and I was just about ready, although it seemed I was morphing into some kind of UFO vampire.

Oh, and I had no fangs.

I think the general birds nest effect supports my argument that I was NOT doing 'sexy halloween' a la Mean Girls.

These photos are a little grainy due partly to the darkness of the abattoir and party to our shake hands as we were genuinely scared when we walked in. An amazing night, but we may need a little more preparatio next year as I don't think the studio holds many more last minute gems.

Bristol Fashion Week AW 2014

Bristol Fashion Week is fantastic, and most of all fun. It is the perfect atmosphere to feel like fashion is a friendly, all encompassing art form, and not a spiky, members only club. I was invited as a blogger to go and see what was coming up for all dedicated followers of fashion, the only problem being, my little phone isn't used to all the bright lights and sashaying down the catwalk. My record of events was a bit of a blur (and that's got nothing to do with the complimentary M&S Cocktail on offer.)

I was hoping for images like this:

styletribe.co.uk

but all I got was this...

Hence, I have incorporated the beautiful photos of Style Tribe , the incredible social media and branding gurus to help tell my story of the event.

The stand out moments for me: John Lewis' incredible creative styling of autumnal leaves cascading through models' hair, really nice to see when you are watching strictly highstreet looks. 

The Burberry rug cape is the lusted after item du jour, and if you haven't got your initials monogramed on it, then why bother eh? The lovely root veg colours of autumn are wonderful clustered together, no acid brights to blind your onlooker, do something a little different and find your own way with a muted toned woolen rug, chuck it about your shoulders over an aubergine winter coat, just like the model in the image below. 

styletribe.co.uk

Just as I bemoan bright colours, out this lot walk. 

styletribe.co.uk

But I have to say, Red is my FAVOURITE colour at the moment. Having just purchased a beautiful Jigsaw dress, I think again, using the root veg colours, the beetroot colour on the bottom half of this is what does it for me, and although you can't see it in this image, there is a slick of tangerine piping up the seams. Delicious. I wore it to an Indian Summer September Wedding, and layered up with a sleek black Polo neck from m&s it will keep me going through winter.

For official images of the event click here and find out how you can get your hands on those covetable items.

Fashion Fix Revisited: Silk scarf pillow case

Amanda Thomas Photography

Now the muggy summer months are over and we sink into a cosy, autumnal slump, it's time for my hair to take another beating from the elements. Wind and rain are as bad as humidity and beating sunlight, so I thought it's high time I revisited one of most popular fashion fixes from last year; the silk scarf pillow. Inspired by Harpers Bazaar's tips to tame frizzy hair, I jumped at the chance of a wallet friendly tip. Et voila, the Silk Scarf Pillow Fashion Fix.

The biggest money saver on this is to use a silk scarf rather than fork out for metres of silk. They are easily sourced in local charity shops as I don't tend to find 100% silk content ones in the highstreet stores

You will need:

• A plain pillow case
• Enough silk to cover one side
• sewing machine
• dressmaking scissors
• dressmaking pins
• tailor's chalk

How to do it:

1. Place your pillowcase right sides together on top of the silk and use as a template. Draw around on the silk using tailor's chalk, leaving 1.5cm seam allowance. Cut out.
2. unpick or cut out one side of the pillow case. (retain the rectangle that has the folded over inner piece that keeps the pillow in place)
3. place the pillow rectangle and the silk rectangle right sides together and pin around 3 sides leaving the opening unpinned.
4. Machine sew a running stitch all around the pinned sides.
5. trim the edges and corners, turn inside out and press.

Amanda Thomas Photography