Photo Courtesy of Matt Bramford

Erdem Moralioglu showcased his work in December at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The fashion show provided an opportunity for the public to see his beautiful garments smothered with an array of bold colour and print.

Discover Denim in Pasadena, Los Angeles and listen to how to care for Jeans, some history of denim and discuss the detailing and understand what makes a quality pair of jeans worth $500.00. Watch video here at Put this on. Below photo shows Mike Hodis in Pasadena working on 1930s style jeans on a sewing machine from the turn of the century. The denim used here is made by utilizing selvedge denim and organic indigo denim, woven in one of Americas oldest mills using shuttle looms. A loom with a shuttle will produce a very different selvedge to a loom without a shuttle used in industrial factories.

Visit the exquisite store in Pasadena, LA or visit their website Rising Sun & Co.

A new book is being released on November 1st 2009 titled Exciting World of Pattern Design by Zeixs Feierabend Unique Books.

It can be purchased from their website and will also be available via amazon. ISBN 978-3-939998-39-6

A recent publication which discusses in depth the origins of the Wall family in Ireland, inspired me to research my own ancestors. This revealed that my great grandmother was actually a lacemaker. Her name was Julia Roache and she married James Wall. She was a lace maker and is wearing one of the waistcoats she made in the photograph below. Lace making in Ireland began as a result of Ursuline nuns forming crochet schools to teach women and girls in need to work during the potato famine in the mid 19th century. The crochet designs became known as Irish Lace. Some of the lace designs were kept secretly within families and only passed from mother to daughter.  Sadly, this craft declined as a result of mass production. There is a wonderful museum in Ireland called The Sheelin antique Irish lace museum in County Fermanagh which exhibits all the various pieces and works that exist in the history of Irish lace.

Further research also reveals that many Walls in England fled throughout the 18th and 19th century due to the lack of work in the textile trade. This may encourage you to research your own family tree and maybe discover if there are any traces of textile history within your own family.

Julia Roache

Example of Irish Crochet

The Sheelin Museum

Paul Smith – The Design Museum 2^nd October 2009 3pm

If you are feeling a little under par for the course for surviving working within the retail industry as a fashion or textile designer in the current economic climate, then attending a talk by Paul Smith at the Design Museum in London would have been just the antidote required.

Starting off in 1970 with a 12ft x 12ft shop in Nottingham at the back of a Tailors shop for rent of £0.50 per week, he opened only on Friday and Saturdays, so that he could spend the rest of the week doing jobs to pay the day to day living. 2 days of speciality, and 5 days of earning the bread and butter. This theme of doing something special and interesting and inspiring, whilst still creating commercial products that pay the rent is still something which Paul insists on being an integral part of the business today. Quite simply, his black suits pay the rent, and his pink suits get the attention and press required.

When asked why he doesn’t attend dinner parties anymore, his response was that his wife, Pauline, and himself are very comfortable with each other, and men at dinner parties would always lean across and want to speak to him, whilst paying little attention to Pauline, and that she should be equally respected. “Fashion parties always have people looking over your shoulder to see if there is someone more important nearby” which is why he doesn’t go to those either. Man after my own heart. Aside of his obvious devotion to his wife whom he met in 1967 and married in 2000, his attitude and outlook have to be the reason for the longevity of his brand.

Jobs outside of running the 1^st shop, involved selling suits from a white van, creating the colours for Benetton and freelance fabric designing. Pauline made womens clothes for the shop, and Paul introduced mens clothing by way of becoming a buyer for the shop. This enabled him to gain contacts at shops worldwide. His own first collection appeared in 1976 and using a hotel room in Paris as a showroom with one spotlight shining on a wardrobe of hanging suits and black felt draped on the bed with more suits, no one came to buy. Just as he was about to pack up, one person from Texas spent £11k. Loyalty still remains from those very first customers who used to go into his shop in Nottingham, mostly due to the time he gave to all customers. Even today – he can still be seen in his shop on Saturdays in Covent Garden, pinning trouser legs of American tourists.

When a soon to be textile design graduate in the audience asked Paul for advice his response was “I don’t mean to sound depressing but there are too many textile designers. You have to decide how you are going to be different.” And, it seems that Paul has stuck to his own advice. Each shop worldwide is completely different to each other, and he insists that even if you go into his store and are not looking to purchase clothes, at least you will find his shop interesting. When he was approached by Heathrow to have his shop at terminal five, Paul went to the meeting with a battered old suitcase and expressed that he would only have a shop there if it represented his suitcase. He got his way, and today the store is frantically busy with shoppers’ treading on the original parquet flooring and missing their flights as a result.

On the subject of globalisation, he states that there is too much greed, over distribution, and we need to be more individual, down to earth and modest as there is too much choice. At the same time he will admit that he is overwhelmed by his success and when visiting his warehouse, he cannot believe it is something to do with him. One of his most favourite shops in Paris is an old café, which was derelict for 30 years. The shop has been barely touched and left more or less in its original state. In the 1930s the coffee house was used by intellectual figures such as Edith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. It now houses the Paul Smith items, within it’s unchanged environment. It his way of refusing to succumb to the rollout style same-format stores worldwide which are evident at Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Visit the store at 70 rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris

How was the Paul Smith Stripe created? Most people will recognise the stripe that is synonymous with the Paul Smith brand of multi-coloured stripes which has been used on a mini car, the Paul Smith bags, linings, and even on a camel! Paul Smith as a release of creativity, created this stripe. After experiencing the frustration of having to only purchase stock fabrics in limiting two colour stripes in his early days, when finally given the opportunity to design his own, he created a stripe design with numerous colours.

I was very moved by listening to Paul Smith explain how he approaches design and how humble he is around his lack of formal training. He explains that his oddities in his designs come from lack of design knowledge. He says he is ok at designing and ok at business but not brilliant at both. I would say he’s certainly more than ok, and somewhat remarkable.

Although it’s easy to aspire to a man with such an inspirational brand, I’m more moved because of the kind of man he is. When questioned about what he thought of “celebrity designers” he agreed that we need to calm down, and that health, happiness, modesty, conversation and love were most important. It’s rare to come across a retail & design professional who has such integrity and is also gifted, elegant and completely modest. Paul Smith has to be one of the most inspirational figures in the fashion industry that I have encountered so far.

Tips from Paul Smith:

1. “Make room to break the rules”
2. “There is too much following, and nothing becomes new, but instead      yesterdays news”
3. “Stop making sense, logic is predictable, think differently”
4. “Do things which are right, not which are easy”
5. “Never assume” (the Paul Smith company motto)
6. “Don’t keep following other people”

By Caroline Wall

There has been a recent upsurge in making your own clothes. Sewing machine sales have increased this year, and the book published in 1943 ‘Make Do and Mend’ is a sell out. Mary Jane Baxter has been travelling around the UK in order to investigate whether this new interest in make do and mend is a passing fashion or a common response to the recent economic downturn.

Watch Mary Jane Baxter’s first film on Newsnight on Friday 2 October 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two

It does seem somewhat strange that people are returning to old-fashioned values that became prominent during the late forties and early fifties. Now, the price of clothing has become incredibly cheap therefore you would think that making your own would be out of the question. Sewing lessons are also being advertised for those who missed out on those at school and women in their 20s are attending Womens’ Institute type meetings in London.

We love the work of Anna Maria Horner. Designing clothing since childhood and a love of fabrics and patterns has meant that Annas work is highly sought after through her online site. Colour and vibrancy are evident throughout Annas’ beautiful work.

In addition you can also buy Seams to me written by Anna Maria Horner with wonderful ideas of products to make.

Boy it’s got cold in London these past couple of days, so what could be a better idea than a trip to a book store to plan an autumnal well needed day trip to Paris hunting around for vintage and hand made finds. Aren’t we lucky we can get there in

as little as two hours on the Eurostar from London. Thank goodness, as I need my Paris trip fix for inspiration.

There are so many beautiful books now and this one is a must-have. Paris: Made by Hand, written by Pia Jane

Bijkerk is a great start to a day of vintage and handmade shopping in Paris, I know it’s coming with me.

Check out Janes blog here http://blog.piajanebijkerk.com/WordPress

As part of the London Design Festival from 19th – 27th September 2009, we will be keeping an eye on B3 Designers latest idea called Eat Shop Drink. Showing from their studio in Bethnal Green, the B3 team
will be setting up shop, restaurant and bar from their very own base. B3 have told us that the main theme of the event is in the reclaiming of goods that are either used, lost, or abandoned, alongside vintage products such as classic chairs and furniture and putting them into a new setting. We can’t wait to see the outcome this year, as cardboard cafe was such a great success last year.

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/content/eatshopdrink

http://www.b3designers.co.uk/

I found it difficult to contain my excitement when I read a recent post on the internet informing me about a wonderful man. In a summer month whilst I was studying for my BA Textile design degree at Derby University, I was lucky enough to stumble across Junichi Arai at the Otsuka Textile Design Institute in Tokyo. I then spent time in his home town in Kiryu, Japan learning and gaining an understanding of his methods and techniques. I even own some of the beautiful textiles that Junichi Arai kindly gave to me. I owe it to him for becoming far too fascinated in the burning of metallic fabrics and the amazing results that can be achieved by transfer printing! I had such a wonderful time that summer. I was totally amazed by the work of Junichi Arai and the way he combined ancient techniques such as Shibori with new fabrics and technologies.