Become a London Fashion Week Model

Hey everyone, Oxford Fashion Campus is holding a concours d'élégance, if you will, to find models for an up-and-coming fashion house taking part in London Fashion Week 2011.

To enter and get yourself noticed, just post a snap shot of yourself onto the Oxford Fashion Campus Facebook page wall and get friends to like your photo.

It's super easy to get started and it would be an awesome experience at London Fashion Week if you're selected so don't be shy!

Forest Functional Attire

You would suppose that most clothes associated with trees are done so on the basis of either camping gear or those woven from fabrics that have been recycled four times over. But what if the clothing we wore actually took after the trees in the sense that the very fabrics would purify the air? ...But of course without the dirt, mossy branches, and crunchy leaves.

Illustration: Max Munsie
No need to worry about going out looking like
you've slept in a fern patch for the past four years...

I'm intrigued to say that the innovative minds at the London College of Fashion and the University of Sheffield are striving to bring fashion and science together with this idea in mind. The collaboration is known as Catalytic Clothing. Go to catalytic-clothing.org for the full details and a stunning video on the ideology and the dress they are developing.

Aural Style: Headphones, Looking Good.

Olga Shvarova
Headphones: AKG Quincy Jones Q701
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

It was the ‘80s; the use of noise in style was a loud statement, literally. Everyone remembers the boom box shoulder walk, and the very colours of clothes themselves would often cause deafness. The boom box, and the neon clothes, however, didn’t quite make it through the filters of the ‘90s. There has yet to be a style as memorable as the shoulder borne boom boxes. Over the past couple of decades the boom boxes have been replaced with something more civilized…

When you’re walking in the street, or while you’re stuck on some variation of public transport, have a look around at what the boom box legacy has dwindled down to – mere tiny white cables!These tiny white adverts for the Apple Empire, laden on commuters’ ears in the most unsociable manners, are the statement of a bland mediocrity we’re constantly drifting towards. Every so often though, some guy with blaring, bright white and green AKG headphones will wander by, and just for that moment, you understand the reasoning behind the extinction of the boom box. But there is a rather large part of you that stares – these headphones are way cooler than the dull iPod ear buds you’re hiding beneath your hair… and you understand that, if you had a headband of sound like that, there is no need to listen to them at that volume. To you, they’re like a beautiful, noisy shall, plus they match your shoes.

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 25P, PX90
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Olga Shvarova
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 25P, PX90
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Olga Shvarova
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 25P
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Fostex T40RP MkII

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 598
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 598, HD 25P
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Olga Shvarova
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 518
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 518
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 25P
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: AKG Quincy Jones Q701
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Beyond the occasional odd person in the street, headphones aren't likely to replace the tie or scarf any time soon. It's important to consider the oncoming style of Silicon Valley's finest tech entrepreneurs. They may be singled out by the magazines and media at the moment for their dress, but it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise when they begin wearing headphones both as a functional piece of attire and to compliment their flip flops. Who knows how many people unfamiliar with orthodox style will be looking to them for inspiration...

Agnieszka Burzynska
Headphones: AKG Quincy Jones Q701
available at Oxford Audio Consultants

Credits - Creative directors: Max Munsie, Chloe Mansell. Photographers: Agnieszka Burzynska, Olga Shvarova. Stylist: Chloe Mansell. Hair & Make Up: Sophie Kevlin. Models: Kristy Chen, Lucy Treadwell, Josh Mansell.
A special thanks to Greg Blatchford and to David and Jon from Oxford Audio Consultants.

A larger collection of photos from the shoot can be seen on our facebook page here

The crooning Burberry

The global markets are a moderate mess lately just in case you didn't notice, and the once soaring publicly traded fashion companies of Burberry, Mulberry, and even ASOS, in all its massive e-retail glory, have taken a heavy hit during the turmoil.

This made me wonder, when I found out what Burberry's Christopher Bailey tweeted as part of his #MusicMonday, just how hurt Burberry is from the recent share holder attrition...

Stay strong Burberry, there's plenty of fish in the sea!

London's Next Top Model

hi all, i've just walked passed the model castings for london's next top model. i dont know what times it is on for but if anyone is interested and in london it's happening in the piccadilly institute right beside ripley's believe it or not!

enjoy!

p.s. excuse the lack of capital letters, i just found out that they weren't factored into the mobile version of the blog... how effective!