Street Subjects

Here's a few photographs I took for a street style project late last year. Sadly the feature was dropped in the end but I didn't want the images to go to waste so I thought I'd share them with you guys. All the images feature people from around the NW, England in various locations in Blackpool and Manchester. I roped Hollie in at the last minute as time was tight, persuading her with coffee and a carmel slices. She's easily won over.

I don't think I did half bad but I can't say I'll be making it into a regular feature just yet, one step at a time! How do you think I got on? 

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Instant Round-Up #3

1. Wearing Farah Vintage jacket*, Albam shirt, Levi's 511, Clarks Desert Trek, Burlington socks, Johnstons scarf 2. Spotted this classic Morris Minor 3. New pair of Nudie Thin Finn* w/ Northern Goods Co. Key Fob and bandana 4 & 5 Snaps from work at Togs + Clogs, New Balance latest drop and a bit of styling 6. Coffee reading, latest copy ofAesthetica Magazine 7. Messing with your melon  8. Hollie enjoying Scampi & Chips at The Queen's in Lytham // *Items c/o Urban Outfitters

Here's a few of my favorite images I've taken on Instagram of late. I've not taken as many photos as I'd like to over the past couple of months but I'm slow getting back into it. Incidentally I've been thinking about buying a new compact; only thinking mind as one of my main priorities at the moment is saving for our Orlando trip pt.2. You may remember we had to cut our first trip early due to a death in the family.

We're all booked for June and this time the road trip we planned to embark on the first time is definitely on. Our loose plan right now is to drive up to Savannah, Georgia then on to Charleston, South Carolina with the finally destination being something within the Blue Ridge Mountains and staying over in some Ralph Lauren style log cabin. Sounds good to me, have any of you guys been around those areas?

Let me know your Instagram handle and I'll get following. Find me at @mat_buckets.

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Summertime Blues

Typical scene, untypical view

We have officially hit gloomsville in England, we've learnt to expect below average summer's but this one really does take the biscuit. I'm not complaining about it but we could do with a break, if you haven't heard on the news England & Wales have had the wettest 3 months on record. Though it feels like someone's always say "on record".

I took this shot a few weeks ago when I was at the top of Blackpool Tower, lets say we didn't pick the best day to go up. Let's hope the end of the week perks up a bit so I can actually take some proper outside shots.

Competition - Hackett x GQ Notebook - Closed

To coincide with the recent London Collections: Men, Hackett have hooked up with GQ to create an exclusive line of notebooks to commemorate the event. Hackett have given me one of the limited edition notebooks to giveaway to one of my readers! This leather lined doozy is proper hot property and hasn't been released to the public as yet, if you were lucky enough to attend any of the shows you might have ended up with one of the special London Collections printed versions.

It features a pretty sweet little metal bowler hat and a black and grey nato style elastic strap to keep things together. This may well be more suited to a chap, but it would make a pretty cool gift for any male figure in your life. Or if you're like me a lover of stationery and seem to hoard notepads like they're going out of fashion.

Competition - Closed

To be in with a chance of winner the Hackett x GQ notebook (and I'll also bung in a couple of pencils from my own collection) just comment on this post saying that you want it. That's it, easy.

The competition is now closed.


I've been messing around with a new background for this post, what do you think?

Snap - Thomas St, Manchester

I took this shot in the Northern Quarter, Manchester a couple of weeks back. It's a street a walk down Thomas Street almost every week as a work around the corner, I'm usually in a mega rush so I don't tend to look around all that much. Me and Hollie (Did you see she won the Barcely's New Business Award at Graduate Fashion Week?!) travel down to Manchester for the day out maybe about once a month and we're always got our eyes peeled. 

This terrace is above a take away shop and squished between restaurants, pubs, shops and solicitors. What I liked about it is the amount of different textures and materials all going on in one tiny place, who knows how it's got like that but I hope they don't go fixing it.

Have a great weekend guys!

Illustrated: MJ

As I got a really good reaction to the illustrations I did a few weeks go (thanks so much for that btw, it made me feel 10 times better about them) I decided to try something slightly different. Instead of concentrating on looks I'm inspired by personally I decided to illustrate someone who I find really interesting and who has a really individual sense of personal style.

I chose MJ from Dreaming Spires and I just hope she likes it! It's a little bit different from the last, with the laces on the boots and scarf both getting slightly more detail. I can't decide if I like it this way or like the previous more simplified version but it was fun to play around with the technique none the less.

Her pale skin, red hair and lipstick seemed to have come out really well. What do you think, can you tell it's her?