London Collections: The Countdown

If you've been a frequent reader, you would of seen my London Collections post back in September. And it's that time again, January 6th - 8th 2014 are the dates for the 2nd year of the men's version of fashion week. Hold tight for more posts about the upcoming schedule and who are the ones to watch!

Mag Mad - AnOther

And lastly of the reviews is AnOther. (Yep the o is meant to be capital)

AnOther 
Issue - 25th Issue Biannual Autumn/Winter 2013
Price ( I paid) - £12.05
Editor - Jefferson Hack

AnOther magazine is another one I haven’t read before, yet it stood out for me with its cover image and use of unordinary text. Even before noticing any of anything else, there was a lot of advertising fall out from it; they seem to have a lot of free mini zines inside, obviously from advertisers which I personally find quite annoying – I want to read the magazine I’ve bought, not free adverts which generally aren’t that great to look at or read. However after that, I noticed the cover is actually a fold out, with a double page spread advert on the underside taken by Dolce & Gabbana; an obvious expensive space to buy. The title is easy to read and grabs your attention straight away as you look at it. Also I like the serif font used; it provides a contrast between a seemingly old looking font with the modern content inside. I like how they’ve got ‘Magazine’ written perpendicular to the title in smaller font as well, it ads something to quite a simple cover. Simple covers are some of my favourites, just because too much text can be quite cluttered and you get all the same info from the contents inside.

It has an easy contents page to navigate, again quite graphic in its layout and different from the norm. They follow a two-three grid and column format throughout which I like as it’s clearly laid out. I’ve also noticed that the gloss of the pages seems a lot higher than other magazines, but that may just be me but nonetheless it looks nice. I think the general size of the magazine is slightly bigger than A4, again I like because it’s a tad different.  

They don’t use imagery in the typical way other magazines do; some images fill the entire page and others are placed around the page with the white background. Having to make a magazine in my first year of university I’ve learnt you can do this, and it looks quite nice if the imagery speaks for itself. They generally have accessories filling the pages when talking about them and editorial centering the pages. In saying that, they also have editorials towards the end of the magazine that fill the pages, probably because the imagery is quite striking.

Before the beginning of each editorial, they have what reminds me of a mind map page with quotes on, which works quite well to explain the imagery you’re about to see. For a magazine which is meant to be fore both men and women’s fashion, the editorials focus more on women which is of course fine by me because I am one! Generally the editorials I feel are really strong and quite quirky, some of the imagery has been manipulated and is very interesting to look at, so if you haven’t looked at the latest issue I’d definitely have a look if you can find it on a newsstand, as it is quite pricey at over £10.

Overall I feel this is my favourite out of them all just because of the variety and the editorials are done really well and are quite quirky and different to what you see everyday. Out of the three, which would be your fav?

Beckham Belstaff

David Beckham - dare I say more? He was on hand last night (Suday September 15th) to launch the new Belstaff store on Bond St. He saucily arrived on a motor bike in a sort of brigade with a group of other men and women. For some reason I thought I might have dreamed this before.. but anyway back on topic...

I think this is really clever marketing on Belstaffs behalf. It's hot topic right now that men buy clothing not fashion, and are just as easily influenced by celebrity endorsements as any women. It's no surprise to anyone that David Beckham is a handsome chap and men would be lying if they didn't want to be him, so what's the easiest way to do this? Buy the clothing he is seemingly seen to be wearing! Of course if he's been used by the brand he will all of a sudden be caught wearing everything and anything of their latest collection so men will see this, and be more intrigued by the brand.

Of course Beckham must have liked the brand otherwise he wouldn't want to put his name to it otherwise. It's also important that they launched during LFW, a crucial time for any brand. Clever Clever Belstaff. The amount of times I've written Belfast in this post by accident!

London Collections Round Up

As I'm sure you're well aware, the London Collections took place last week and into this week. I won't bore you with a complete low down as you've probably read it everywhere and anywhere by now, but thought I'd let you know a few of my personal favs from the couple of days.

From Sunday, I absolutely LOVED the Jonathan Saunders show, there was one jacket in particular, that had the best array of colours in a waved pattern through out it, that just stood out for me. And a metallic neon yellow bomber which was just amazing.

Jonathan Saunders jackets

Another designer that stood out for me was Shaun Samson. There was just something about the contrasting soft pink colours against the harsh blacks and greys as well as his use of silver, because we all know I can't get enough of silver. Did I say I liked silver? The flowy, almost feminine lines was really nice to see also.

Shaun Samson SS14

If someone said they didn't enjoy one of Burberrys shows, they'd be lying. I really liked how each model had their own man-clutch or quant back pack, which worked so effortlessly well with Christopher Baileys clean sophisticated style. The colours were so preppy and clean, it all just worked so well together.

Burberry

I really love how the BFC have integrated the London Collections into a main fashion event. As I said in my previous post about the fashionistas that are forever hungry for more, it bridges the gap between the major September and January weeks. I'm not a big Menwears fan, but I really did enjoying looking what each designer had to offer. As well as the clothes, the fashion show sets for me were interesting to see, especially Alexander McQueen who never fails to deliver something just a tad out of the ordinary as well as Saville Row with their cricket ground setting.

Mens Fashion Week What?

Yep you heard it right, mens fashion week! As we all know all the major cities Fashion Weeks have always been about womenswear and it's time to make way for menwear. I think BFC have named it London Collections: Men and 48 catwalk shows and presentations will take place across two days. The last event was held back in January for autumn/winter 13 and this year it's on Sunday 16th June-18th June. Over 30 ready-to-wear collections and accessories designers will be exhibiting over three floors at The Hospital Club, WC2.

The BFC describes the London Collections as: "emphasising both the creative and commercial importance of Britain's brands and emerging talent as well as the rich cultural landscape that contributed to the inspiration and success of this section."
Just as GFW, it's also so important to see emerging talent within menswear as well as women. Even if I wont wear the clothes, I think I'd still find it interesting to see and watch and take in the mens trends.

It was only launched last June so it must of been a success for it to gain a second year, and on two occasions throughout the year so far, of course similar to the standard fashion weeks. The BFC have announced the winners of the brightest emerging talent that have got themselves a place at the London Collections to showcase their spring/summer 14 collection. These include Agi & Sam, Lee Roach, Matthew Miller, Nasir Mazhar, Shaun Samson and Astrid Andersen. These are the ones to watch this season.

L-R A&S, LR, MM, NM, SS, AA

Agi & Sam are about to launch their first collection for Topman and have been branded by The Guardian as the the men who 'design clothes that people want to wear.' Look out for an owl theme running through their range. Lee Roach's signature is 'reduction and repetition' and graduated from Central Saint Martins only shortly back in 2010. Matthew Miller loves using engineered digital prints and structured tailoring. He states spring/summer 14 will introduce a new manifesto for the brand - ooo exciting! Nasir Mazhar is very out their and his signature piece is a box peak cap. You can't miss this fellos work. Shaun Samson is also a graduate of CSM and is looking to recreate the ultimate summer party with his s/s14 collection. And Lastly Astrid Andersen says his client must be 'confident above all' and wants to create a look that is masculine, using street attitude and hip hop references. For more of their work, go on the BFC website to see their previous seasons catwalks at, www.londoncollections.co.uk./men

Alex Chung and David Gandy, just to name a few, have taken part in a new campaign called The GREAT Campaign in conjunction with London Collections to entice people to visit and study in London. Fashion of course, as we do have some of the best colleges in the world. (See image at the top) The image is taken on the famous Savile Row which hosts some of the best mens tailoring which is a perfect way to advertise the London Collection. Along with the images, there are a series of video campaigns to go along side which you can watch on the above address also.

I'm not sure if they stream the showcases online yet, but be sure to check out the coverage after the two day event if like me you're intrigued to see what the upcoming talent has to offer.