Gift #3 - Morris the Mule

Morris the Mule has been sitting at the side of my while I write my blog posts since Christmas day. He's a pretty top bloke, always there when I need some memo paper and even though he doesn't respond at least I know he won't give me any backchat.

In all seriously though this one was another stonker of a present. I'd seen Morris in shops for a couple of years and I always thought how sweet it was, and then it ends up under my tree. Morris has a few mates now too, I remember seeing a menagerie of memo holders in John Lewis, including Bianca the Hippo.

You still have a few days left to enter the Comme des Garcons giveaway. Remember you have 1 chance per day, just click the sidebar --->

Competition: Comme des Garcons - Second Gets Nothing

This Monday morning I'm proud to share with you all a 5-day long contest, which is being hosted through Buckets & Spades, along with several other blogs around the world. The signature unisex fragrance Comme des Garcons 2 is the prize and this time everyone has a change of winning.

Here's the easy bit - There will be 10 winners each day, from Monday to Friday. The contest is based on an instant win mechanism, just like a fruit machine. All you have to do is click the image above (or on the side bar) which will take you through to a special Comme des Garcons page where you enter a few details and see if you're a winner, instantly. If you click at the right time you're a winner! You can only enter once each day, but seeing that there will be 10 winners a day you're all in with a great chance of winning!

So get entering! Let me know if you win.

Inspiration - Yayoi Kusama's The Obliteration Room

(Image source)

I love the way colour can have big impact on your mood and outlook for the day. You only have to look out your window on a sunny morning, it makes you want to get out there and enjoy yourself. Admittedly it is usually grey in England so you have to go to other lengths to put you in a good mood. I usually do it through socks but that's another matter altogether.

The concept behind Yayoi Kusma's Obliteration Room was to start of with a blank canvas, a completely white interior and let children lose on the room with colourful dots. Minute by minute the look of the room would change, creating a whole new experience each time you enter. I love the idea of it starting off so innocently and they BOOM, the whole thing goes crazy. The interactive installation is still on till next month, if you happen to be in Queensland.

So this weekend I will be trying to add a bit more colour to my outfits than usual. Give it a go!

In other news my blog was voted in Voucher Codes' Most Wanted Fashion 100: February 2012 Edition, in the menswear category. I'm in good company too, with some familiar faces.

Hentsch Man A/W 2012

When you've got a busy day ahead the last thing you want in the morning is to be faffing about trying to figure out what to wear. It's just too much effort when you're in a rush. I don't mean you have to play it beige everyday but sometimes you just want some wearable gear that you don't have to think too much about. Stuff that just works, you know. Hentsch Man have been doing just that for the past couple of years now, producing some really wearable pieces which will slip seamlessly into your wardrobe, without making much noise.

For A/W 2012 Hentsch Man have continued to build on their strong shirting, chinos and outerwear but this time added a few new colours and patterns into the mix. Their past collections focused on tailoring but the '12 stuff feels like it's got more of a nod to streetwear with sweats, parkas, denim and some nice camo pieces. It's a nice mix and it's the sort of stuff that would suit me. It's not breaking any boundaries but for the regular chap on the street it really doesn't need to.

For more information on Hentsch Man visit their site

Brief Visit to London

Earlier this week we spent fleeting visit to London, the main reason was to visit some exhibitions and search for inspiration for Hollie's final project for uni. Our first stop was to the Design Museum to see the Terence Conran and Designs of 2012 exhibitions. The Conran exhibition was just great, curated really well with cracking visuals and displays mixed in with in-depth details about the designer's life. I'm the first to admit that I don't know as much about him as I'd like to but it was instantly clear to see how much influence his style had on the proceeding decades and future designers.

Here's a bunch of photos from our time down in foggy London time -

Best quote I've seen in ages

  

A man of many talents

There was a large selection of his work from his Habitat days, it all felt so ahead of its fine.

 This tool cabinate was a gifted to Trence Conran on his 80th birthday, what a present! Up close you could see that each piece was finished to the highest level, wonder how much this is worth.

I've never been down the back of the Shad Thames, what a lovely little area.

For all your skinhead needs

A squirrel with its nuts on show, wicked display in Paul Smith's window on Floral St.

A plain outfit was brightened up with polka dot socks from Tabio, with Clarks Desert Trek's

The plan was to go to the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy but they queue was huge and we were pressed for time. Gutted. So we ended up wondering around the Regent St. area to make up for it

Brilliant window displays in the Hackett store on Regent St. They must have spent hours perfecting it.

Anthropologie, boy there's tones of interesting stuff going on in there, here's a couple of things that took my eye. I did snap a ton more in here but they came out a bit blurry

 Had a play around with Ben Sherman's high tech window display on Carnaby St. You can press buttons down turn the clothes around, to see all angles, cracking idea. Lovely looking store and I regret not buying something now actually. I'll save it for another time.

 L.L Bean & Harris Tweed bucket had spotted in Beyond Retro

 We took a detour up Shoreditch High St. to visit Present, it's the kind of menswear store that women love just as much as men. 

If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me asking for some recommendations of interesting places to visit while we were down. Jen from Styleeast complied her top 10 places to go so we worked our way through most of them. It was a mixture of vintage shops, coffee shops and restaurants. After dashing from place to place down East we finished out trip of with a very tasty coffee at Nude Espresso on Hanbury St, just off Brick Lane. Then we packed our bags and headed back up North.

Inspiration - Jeremy Kool's Digital Origami

Can you believe these aren't actually real origami animals? Austrainlian based graphic designer Jeremy Kool creates these pretty incredible digital illustrations of 3-D origami animals. You could easily be mistaken in to believing that he's been extremely handy with the paper folding art and made them up for real but he creates these realistic interpretations on his computer. Pretty cool eh. Kool (what a name) is currently selling these and the rest of this series as prints at The Paper Fox Shop.

It takes quite a skill to create something so realistic, but can't help but feel that I'd prefer to see them as real 3-D structures. I'm unsure if a structure so technical could be created using the origami technique. Does anyone know and has anyone seen anyone make something like this for real?

Image source and more about this project click here

Made In....Part 2

Perfecto brogues, Grenson "Archie" - Made in England

£3 charity shop Harris Tweed blazer with turquoise and orange weave - Made in Scotland

Charity shopped numbers, Liberty and M&S ties - Made in the U.K

The old faithful vintage Woolrich cpo jacket - Made in U.S.A

Gees this has been a long time coming but today I had a bit of spare time (and some daylight) so I  took advantage and grabbed my camera for part 2 of my "Made In...." feature.

As I mentioned in part 1 I'm quite obsessed with finding out a bit of information about existing things in my wardrobe and also potential purchases. This usually involves me rummaging around for labels while sales assistants look at me like I'm about to hack the security tags off. I used to just look at the material but now it's the country of origin. Most of the things featured above are either from charity shops or vintage finds, so what does that say then? I'll be in London next week for a couple of days and I'm planning on checking out a few vintage shops for some more quality pieces.

A lot of my clothes are made in much poorer countries and it's hard to avoid when you don't have the money spend but it's nice to know a little more isn't it. Have you guys been checking out your labels since part 1? If not how about checking whatever you're wearing now? I'd be really interested to hear what everyone can see.

*The Grenson brogues are proper good, sadly they're still in unworn condition as they don't quite fit me. I had a protective sole put on too, (I'd be on my arse in no time with leather soles)before I realised! If anyone is interested in them and are a uk 8/9 do get in touch.