Style Bubble

Pollocks.... not really bollocks...?

Ah... to be 20 and full of bright ideas again.  I've always wondered why fashion blogging in the UK hasn't taken off at the same pace as it has in the USA or even Europe (I can name top ten French fashion blogs but I can't do the same for the UK....).  Of course, unlike fash-geek overe here, London's young things are out and about or else, they're creating sites like Pollocks that isn't of the usual fash-blog ilk.  Newly set up by Josef Valentino, Callum T and Nantay who have an average age of 19, Pollocks is a space for individuals to upload and share their work on their Blank Canvas, be it photography, fashion design, video or anything that can be displayed on the web.  I believe they're also going to be asking people to bring their work into a monthly gallery event to tack their work up on the walls. 

I'll be watching the Pollocks with great interest.  Some recent finds include...

Gloria Loves Valentine has created these images for Swear Shoes to celebrate Swear's greatest hits...

Scott Webster's image of something blurry yet beautiful...

Simian Coates' photography as featured in War! magazine and styled by Molaroid.  A great little freebie mag, which came out a while ago and featured many fresh UK graduate designers...

*Yawn* Dye *Yawn*

Tins of Dylon dyes clutter up my drawers and make a mockery out of me.  I stare at them and they stare back as if to say 'Ha... you bought us, dumped us because you couldn't be arsed to see your intended DIY projects through!'.  Encouraged by Flying Saucer's scary uni halls kitchen dip dying incident that turned out to be quite the success and incidentally, The Clothes Horse was also getting crafty-tights happy too last night, I ventured into my kitchen and clinically went about dip dyeing some tights and a skirt in a purple Dylon dye that is circa 2000.  Thankfully, dyes don't seem to have use-by dates and all went well apart from maybe the skirt not taking on the colour as strongly as the tights (synthetics are quite tricky to dye or so Dylon tells me...).  Now the mind is reeling and I shall return to my nearest Dylon stockist with starry eyed enthusiasm and renewed faith that they won't be knocking about in my drawers and making me feel bad. 

Animation Shoes

Finsk shoes inspired by the colours of Studio Ghibli and the Moomins by Tove Jansson aka my childhood companion VHS staples?!?  Can we say gagging for it all together.  What makes it even better is that these shoes are part of Finsk’s new collaboration with Faith which will be available in April.  I’ve been a little iffy with their past collaborations with the likes of Olivia Morris  and Gil Carvalho as I’ve liked some designs but loathed others.  These however get a double yes from me even if I didn’t know Julia Lundsten also is a fan of Studio Ghibli.  She has also taken architectural shapes from Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen in truly traditional Finsk fashion and applied them to these shoes for Faith.   The colours and moods definitely remind me of those aforementioned refreshingly organic and untainted animation. 

Judging from these preview images of Finsk’s AW08 collection ‘Lucid Dreams’, the Faith collaboration seems like an even more bargainous buy as the two collections are not aesthetically speaking miles apart.   Of course we are talking superior and more unique materials such as nubuck and tumbled metallic leather with that same combination of textures and architectural shapes that I last observed. 

Still, seeing as designer-high street collaborations in shoes have yet to reach the stages of fruition that the clothes have, I’ll be looking forward to these offerings from Faith.