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Wednesday, July 27

Pure London


Pure London is back again. Gracing London's Earls Court in a fashionable presence. It will be a buzzing hub of creativity and excitingly a stage for the fashion forward designer. 

As we know trade shows are the best type of marketing, and quite a cheap form. A mixture of Boutique Premium and Studio designs are exhibited.  The most exciting part of this scheme i would say is the Graduate Fashion Week Winner's show. I love the fact that London's supporting the up and coming generation. I'm going to be one of them so it gives me hope. NewGen, Pure and so on. Lets wait for the reviews. 

Pure London will be on from the 7th the 9th Of August at the Olympia and Earls Court 2. 

It's Not Easy...Cassie St. Patrick

Fashion styling, an avenue in fashion made for the thick skinned. Perseverance is the USC (Unique Selling Characteristic) that accompanies drive, inevitably leaving us the observer with the passion of that individual smothered in an array of texture, tone and pattern on that size 6 model. Fashion styling simply rocks.
I delve a bit deeper, to find the journey of an individual that landed them at there Oxford street destination. 


Cassie St Patrick - Personal Shopper/Stylist at Topshop Oxford Circus in the hotseat. 


G.I.A: Why did you become a Personal Shopper?
Cassie: Firstly I finished my degree as a fashion journalist at Surrey Institute of Art and Design and was a bit confused as to where to begin, I decided to go into styling straight away. I worked for Polydor Records, working with big bands such as Take That and that kind'ah thing. I really enjoyed that but I missed the writing side of things. A job finally came up at the Telegraph Online - super well payed but I decided to move on and work as a trend researcher for WGSN. I did that for 3 years and really enjoyed it, met a lot of people and got a lot of contacts. It was a tough one because I was happy but I missed styling too much, so I went with my heart. Styling is an absolutely amazing job, but unfortunately if you work for a magazine or a record label the pay isn't always amazing (peanuts). So I came to Topshop. The pay is really good, and it's interactive, I love working with people and the clients make it really enjoyable. 

G.I.A: How hard did you find it getting into the industry?
Cassie: Extremely hard. When I was working at Polydor I had to literally work 4 jobs just to cover myself. It was hard, I mean hard! (At this point Giles the Topman Personal Styling manager walks in, with a questioning look on his face. Cassie laughs, and the introductions follow)
Erm, sorry about that (laughs). But yeah it was really hard, I still know of people that were on my course that are still waiting for their big break. So it's extremely hard, you have to be unbelievably determined, have incredibly thick skin and be really talented. 

G.I.A: What advice would you give someone trying to break into the fashion industry?
Cassie: Erm, internships. Seriously, do as many as you can possibly do. Even now the internships that I did when I was doing my degree have still come in handy, in terms of contacts. So it's work as long and as hard as you can, it is for free most of the time but it is worth it. Oh yeah and do a blog (laughs) get blogging because it shows what your all about to your future employer. 

G.I.A: Did you have a blog?
Cassie: I didn't actually! For my final project at Uni i did a dissertation but also set up my own website that targeted people ranging for 16-24. It was like a way into fashion, I was really into web design such as Dreamweaver and stuff like that so I just kept that up really. 

G.I.A: What are the key trends for this season?
Cassie: For this season, it's all been really about a prim and proper trend. Which is, quite preppy very girly it feeds into the colour story really well. So there's a lot of little cute summer dresses with summer shorts, put together with matching jackets. Very Luella but more so Spring/Summer '09 , but its been brought back in. That's probably for the 16-24 market. Colour blocking has been absolutely insane this season. It's a difficult story for clients to get because it's more about buying loads of different pieces and blending them into one look. It's an expensive trend , but its one that's across all markets and seems to be very successful. Oh yeah and obviously in Topshop and in most collections you're gonna see this Rock chic, Boho look. Its continued for most of the summer and has now turned into this kind of gypsy rocker for this season. So it's definitely festival gear with a definite Boho edge.

G.I.A: Well Cassie you have been absolutely amazing, thank you so very much for your time.
Cassie: Yeah sure, send me the name of your blog I wanna check it out. 

Hello blogosphere

I'm the exciting other person on board, G.I.A. I am very excited about this whole project, I'm new to the blogging world so all I can bring is me. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer, as ultimately I want to engage with the fashion innovator, the kids fascinated and striving to be apart of the fashion galaxy. Enjoy.

Tuesday, July 26

(capsule) New York, 18th & 19th July 2011


Capsule New York from Paul Tamayo on Vimeo.


As an aspiring menswear buyer seeing events like this make me extremely excited for my future. This video, though short, shows me that there is a real buzz and energy within these shows.

One day I will be a (capsule) making orders with brands and basking in the ambiance, one day.

Jacket Required coming next month


It seems as though London is looking to further establish itself as a hub for menswear. Not unlike the recent New York trade show, (capsule), Jacket Required seeks to make it easier for buyers to get the best brands from all over the world.

The problem the trade show would seek to rectify as outlined by one of the founders, Craig Ford, is that often "buyers would come to [his] showroom from all over Europe but they'd just come to see one brand and they were coming at different times to London to see other brands". What better way to lessen the recurring costs of travel than bring them all together under one roof.

At the moment London is lacking any kind of menswear exhibition and the guys behind Jacket Required want to start something small and really good, getting it right the first time and build upon it but aren't looking to complete, but instead are doing it because London deserves it seeing as places like Seville Row were and still remain cornerstones of great mens' clothing.

The brands represented will include names such as Garbstore, BAPE, HUMAN MADE and Ambush Jewelry with the addition of Bedwin & The Heartbreakers, a Japanese brand that is being shown for the first time in Europe plus many more.

Jacket Required will be held over two days, 7th and 8th August at Rochelle School in Shoreditch, East London.

Sunday, July 24

Oi Polloi announces Cottonopolis

Four pocket classic parka prototype by Cottonopolis (image via thedailystreet)
As one of the stores on our 'Where to go' map it is with great pleasure we can announce that Manchester boutique, Oi Polloi is launching their own in-house brand, Cottonopolis.

As always it is exciting when someone new decides to enter the menswear game especially when it is someone so well versed in the ins and outs of it, so to speak. No doubt we will see influences from many popular menswear hubs such as Italy with a trademark English tinge to them.

It will definitely be interesting to see whether Cottonopolis stays at Oi Polloi or goes the way of Norse Projects, another in-house brand created by Norse Store.

Friday, July 22

Getting ourselves on our feet

Over the manic exam period it was necessary to move away from blogging but we're back and ready to hit the ground running.

First things first is that we just joined bloglovin and we'd love your support