The Chosen Six for Londons: Men’s Only Fashion Week

Dalton, Sibling, Raeburn, Rose, Miller & Bunney
will showcase their collections at Mens Fashion Week.

London’s first “Men’s Only Fashion Week” is only a few weeks away and it seems that the British fashion industry have scheduled those dates in their mind, Blackberry, Iphone and their Filofax (it’s a hotly anticipated affair).

With this amount of publicity surrounding the menswear industry in the Britain, the British Fashion Council announced their S/S13 Newgen Award which in effect means the recipient of these awards are the selected designers to represent their works during the fashion week. The selected six will receive mentoring and support to showcase their latest collections at the maiden London Collections: Men 15^th – 17^th June 2012.

The Chosen 6:

Lou Dalton : Lou studied at the Royal College of Art. She has previously worked for Hamish Morrow, Stone Island, Crucianni Knitwear and Charlie Allen.

Design signature: “Rebellious English sportswear with a strong attention to detail.”

Sibling: Design trio Sid Bryan, Joe Bates and Cozette McCreery comprise “Sibling.” The trio bring with them a strong scale of experience as they have previously worked with a number of top name designers.

Design signature: “Colourful, well-made, luxury knitwear for a man bored with the grey V-neck option.” And not forgetting the shake-up of luxury wer with cartoon ka-pows of colour and bams of very English humour.

Christopher Raeburn: Graduated from the Royal College of Art, mainly freelanced as a pattern cutter before setting up his own studio.

Design signature: “Innovative, functional and fun.”

Martine Rose: Martine Rose was a co-founder member of highly-acclaimed fashion label LMNOP. Their collections were also sold internationally mainly to Japan and London.

Design signature: Tailored garments made with textiles that offer you a grand-demure with bold colour statements.

Matthew Miller: Like Raeburn Miller also studied at the Royal College of Art. Before setting up his own label, he worked on design projects with Umbro and Brioni.

Design signature: “formed from an investigation into the technological versus the traditional; performance fabrics, tailoring and sportswear detailing form the basis of the Mr. Matthew Miller look.”

Andrew Bunney: Originally worked for a vintage clothing company as a buying specialist and then worked for many other companies specialising as a designer or a design consultant.

Design signature: “A juggle between making something that is simple and understandable, with something that is special enough to have a new or fresh character.”

Our note: We at frontpose can’t wait to see these collection, it’s going to be great. We feel that this event  that is specifically catered towards just menswear industry is well awaited for, to tell you the truth we felt that it was about time that the B.F.C. thought to introduce such a event, when you think about it the mens fashion industry is worth billions, Britain needed to acknowledge that these menswear designers need an outlet to also advertise there work.­­­

article written by: www.frontpose.com

Finally the saga ends Christian Dior has finally appointed a new creative designer, Raf Simons today, replacing John Galliano.

We actually do not want to speak of why John Galliano had been made redundant of the post at Dior, but to address how the appointment of Raf Simon is a step forward for the Dior label.

It is not like Christian Dior would hire any rookie for this position, here’s a bit of Simon’s credentials the Belgian born designer was appointed head creative designer at Jil Sander (which is own by the Prada group) during 2005. Although he had presented a number of collections it was noted by many that his 2007 collection for Jil Sander was one that put him in the lime light in the fashion industry (actually after the 2007 collection many put him in the same ranks as Karl Lagerfeld and Azzedine Alaïa).

His 2007 collections and ones thereafter were very tailored and had a hint of femininity, and this is because of the cliental Jil Sander were aiming, they were those of high powered woman, who worked in cut throat industries.

The unique selling point of Jil Sander’s lines were that they were able to shown in a cat work and then could easily be transferrable to everyday work attire and that is why we believe Jil Sander has had much success as of recent.

Our note: We think that Christian Dior have appointed the right designer for the company, Raf Simmon has shown on a number of occasions that he can represent the ideology of Christian Dior however, it must be noted that his designs may not scream out femininity but it does not mean that Raf Simon can’t do Dior justice.

Alot would say that Raf Simon is incomparable to John Galliano and we do agree, John Galliano was a great in his own right but could Raf Simon be the one that changes Christian Dior’s image for the future … we hope so.

p.s. we are really eager to see Dior’s new collection.

article written by: www.frontpose.com

Another fashion house in with another law suit!

It was only yesterday that we had heard that Gucci and Guess are under a legal battle, but now we find out Dolce and Gabbana have filed one as well suing a South-African seaside jewellery store called “Dolce and Banana”

The quick kill nature of the Luxury fashion line had not shown any remorse for the African business that has been running for 12years and has forced them to remain to just “Banana”.

Owner Mijou Beller pleaded “Dear Stefano, please let us be,” Beller pleaded via Twitter. “And visit us in Cape Town. I have always admired your famous sense of humour so present in your brand and in your designs. And although I appreciate that Dolce & Gabbana is a very successful commercial enterprise, I fail to understand why Dolce and Banana is a threat.”

Our note: We empathise with Mijou Beller that it may have taken him years to create his brand awareness for his company “Dolce and Banana” at the same time we feel companies should follow the unwritten code of not copying ones name of brand image. Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have spent decades building the brand “Dolce and Gabbana”, and we feel that any business owner in any shape or form will try to ensure their image is attained to just them.

H&M and Luxury Fashion

The headline in the fashion world today is that H&M clothing is entering into the luxury fashion sector. Could H&M have an instant hit on their hands or could it be detrimental to the company if they are to enter into this sort of market?

There a number of reason to suggest that H&M could have a hit in entering the luxury sector, they have already have acquired a mass following on their current H&M label, but it must be said whether they can follow through on creating a brand awareness on their new luxury venture.

Could H&M be over their heads when entering into this market? We can understand the thought process of wanting to enter this sector, as they have had a number of collaboration success with the help of Marni and Versace. Could H&M’s sight be a little clouded after seeing their H&M collaboration success, we think they are. H&M should realise that their collaboration success was only down to the fact that Versace and Marni are both international renowned fashion houses and they can both wiled in a huge amount of people and this is due to the fact that they are key figures in the upper spectrum of the design world where as H&M are not…

Well whether H&M are truly going to enter into this sector we give them the best of ALL luck cause to be frank they may need it.

article written by: www.frontpose.com

Problems of a Fashion House!

Alexander Wang has come under fire from former employees of his New York factory that they have been working in “sweatshop” like conditions. Although Alexander Wang spokesperson have said “The claims regarding sweatshop conditions are completely untrue,” however it seems that these 30 or so employees have issued a number of claims to support their statement such as “working 16-hour days without overtime pay.”

Lawyer Ming Hai who will be representing the cause on behalf of these employees has issued a statement in regards to working conditions at the factory and the type of people that Alexander Wang is hiring “A lot of the workers are new immigrants and they don’t speak English. They work long hours. It’s like a new kind of slavery.”

We at www.frontpose.com are greatly disheartened that a company of great economic value can resort to such form of labour, it seems that this form of labour is downright wrong, not only do we find this unfit but we find it to be against any human right, ethically and morally unjust. Our stance is from the view point of any employee whether minute or major in a workforce and that is not to have their human rights breached.

This brings us to the question if working conditions can be in such a disastrous state in New York, America imagine how working conditions can be like for 3rd world countrie’s workforce were a lot of these big shot companies produce their garments. Although it must be said that even a small factory in these countries can produce countless jobs, but we feel that big fashion houses must understand that they too have to be ethical in working conditions and pay.

article written by: www.frontpose.com

Gucci Vs Guess

Well this has been boiling for a number of years, but we’re guessing Gucci has had enough of Guess infringing Gucci’s signature “G” design; they have finally issued a legal battle which has been issued to the New York federal court. This isn’t the first time Gucci has sued Guess for using the Gucci motifs, Guess has used the combination of green and stripes on a number of ad-campaigns and also on certain clothing, it must be noted that Gucci has been using the green and red colour scheme well for donkey’s years.

Gucci have stated that “This case is not about following fashion trends,” said Gucci attorney Louis Ederer. “It’s about a massive, complicated scheme to knock off Gucci’s best-known and iconic designs.

Our note: CREATIVE DESIGNER at Guess you’re more than well known (do you seriously think you’d get away with this) and also you have people working round the clock to make your company different from the rest, how about finding out what you’re paying them for…

article written by: www.frontpose.com