Brand Of The Week: David Longshaw

A designer who has been on my radar since my first foray into fashion journalism whilst at Amelia’s Magazine, I have followed the career of David Longshaw eagerly - especially in recent seasons - coveting the wonderful accessories made in conjunction with his girlfriend and incidentally SIX Magazine favorite, Kirsty Ward for the past two seasons.

An esteemed illustrator having won the Colin Barnes Drawing Prize in 2005, Longshaw has an unrivalled talent for creating individualist characters that centre in his own narrative stories. Sponsored by Swarovski Elements garments are sculptural, colourful and in short, match Longshaw’s signature to a tee. Longshaw’s work is witty, imaginative, thought-provoking and above all; beautiful. For the first time AW11 sees the designer collaborate on a capsule footwear collection with footwear designer Heather Blake.

The AW11 collection is inspired by the following shirt story:
‘Seriously Rose, I can’t bloody believe it here, they’ve stuck me in the middle of sodding nowhere with these religious nuts who expect me to go to church with them and sit shitting cross stitching by the fire ‘of an eve.’ What do they think it is, the bloody 15thCentury?’ They don’t drink and they don’t f****ing swear. There’s no one my age I’ve met other than one or two who are destined to die virgins unless one of them changes sex and their parents force them in to an arranged marriage to procreate more dull, wierd looking bastards! ‘Don’t even get me started on the sodding birds! It’s supposed to be quiet in the countryside, but every morning at 5am all I get is bloody tweet, tweet, tweet; they even tap on the window- I thought it was someone at the front door at first. It’s a nightmare when you’ve got a hangover. I managed to smuggle in some booze but I’m running low.’ Tora, a wayward girl, gets sent to live with her tea-total, religious, cross stitching, aunt and uncle in the middle of nowhere, to try get her on the straight and narrow. She takes a soft toy named Frank with her, which has a pet shoe and a love of whisky.

Having fallen in love with Longshaw’s forthcoming AW11 collection at the Iroquois press day back in April, I can’t wait to see what VOGUE.com’s ‘Designer to Watch 2011’ and ELLE’s ‘Rising star of 2011’ will have in store

AW10 Press Days: Part Nine

There seem to be way too many good press days this season - in comparison to last - but I'm guessing that this may just be because I didn't attend as many as I'd have liked back in November. Anyhow I've been going to so many that I'm failing to report back fast enough so get used to more photographs and less words, which may well be music to your ears.

At Bryan Morel PR I loved the colours and sophisticated cuts from Maria Grachvogel, and I have to say publicly that the lunch spread was wonderful:

Naturally, as you'd expect John Rocha's collection was a cracker! Close-up I loved the quality that shone through with all of the fabrics weighing a tonne.

I thoroughly enjoyed the chic silhouettes, digital prints, and of course Swarovski crystal numbers present in the Osman collection.

Mostly as a reminder to self, I've included this cute bear face bum bag from Mango... will be used in a shoot very soon!

At Iroquois PR I only took a couple of noteworthy snaps. First up was is one of favourite ethical designers - Lu Flux.

Another firm favourite, held in high regard by everyone (I'm taking into account that if a designer is BFC/ Newgen backed then they should be considered 'good stock' by the fashion pack) is Christopher Raeburn, whom as we all know by now uses re-appropriated military fabrics and parachute material.

Truly great brands were on display at the H PR press day - a land I had not had the pleasure of visiting before!

I love these playful garments designed by Elizabeth Lau, which will be going in my forthcoming clown shoot.

I loved this woven suede and leather laptop case.

One of my new favourite brands discovered at the press days is Paul and Joe Sister. I loved the cuts, the textures and also the prints.

Tba was another new brand, whose collection I was pleasantly suprised with.

Paul and Joe's collection was also lovely and the floral blazer in particular caught my attention.