Monday 31st December: Last minute Gettup

Goodbye 2007 and hello to 2008 with a quick little cheeky something to jazz up my look for BoomBox tonight............

Sunday 30th December: Xmas Thankyou Cards

Sunday 30th December: Super Super

The new cover story of "Super Super" with Patrick Wolf wearing an archive ruffle of mine and holding the original crown I made for Selfridges Christmas windows...............the feature was shot by Akio, styled by Susie Lloyd and props by Helen Macintyre..................read the interview by Russel Dean Stone and in particular the mini transcript from the shoot at the end......

Saturday 29th December: Holly Mac

This is my assistant Holly who actually auditioned for the Metronomy video but was too shy to win them over ...........not so shy here in her latest MySpace profile picture from the studio.............. and the other image is one of her previous modelling stints for Hannah Wood's degree collection..........

Friday 28th Dec: Radio Ladio

This is the new video for Metronomy that I mentioned recently. Its directed by daniel brereton and features props by Helen Macintyre. I love this so much................it reminds me a bit of the Tretchikoff paintings I have up at home..............

Monday 24th Dec: My Fair Lady

Cecil Beaton's "My Fair Lady" on Christmas eve telly..................this makes me even more impatient for Stephen Jones curated exhibit at the V&A next year.............to see some of these original hats in the flesh (silk) will be quite something!

Sunday 23 December: 13 Desserts

Dinner with my best friends Anna & Vicky and an introduction to a French festive custom of 13 desserts.............13 components to an after meal munch............I counted Grapes, Satsumas, Figs, Dates, Raisins, Cranberries, Walnuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Fig biscuits, Chocolates with a joke in the wrapper, White Nougat..........the missing element was apparently Black Nougat............I didn't even know such a thing existed?................

Thursday 19 & Friday 20th Dec: Shepherds Bush Empire Part 2

Here are the shooting stars that we made to decorate the risers........pictures from drying at the studio to being literally embraced in the performance on stage! Here Patrick is wearing an incredible garment by Craig Lawrence (who I blogged a month ago at Nov 27 exhibition for reference). At the close of night we handed out the stars to fans who were beside themselves with arms stretched out to get one to take home as memorabilia.........I wish i could have seen the tube ride of the teenager who ended up with the 2m swoosh............

Thursday 19 & Friday 20th Dec: Shepherds Bush Empire

Here are the paper snowflakes that we made for Patrick Wolfs grand finale gigs at The Shepherds Bush Empire. I have never done a set for a music show before and I loved every minute of it - except the last-minute challenge of finding fire proof solution in London at 5:15p.m (big shout out to Holly who ran the gauntlet of town Xmas shopping pavements to find it). It is phenomenal the amount of work that goes into putting on a live show, from the lighting choreography to the Grand piano tuning. This show pulled out all the stops by Patrick bringing together the best elements he could find for the final send off to touring The Magic Position. If you want to see more have a look on flickr.com where I cheekily stole these pictures from..........

Weds 19th December: Office Christmas Party

Helen and I got the last lick of paint on and dashed down to Hoxton Street for Dazed & Confused Christmas Party. The theme was cover stars of past issues ............here is Kim Howells in replica garb of the shoot in the current issue featuring her casting of nannies as models..............hilarious as always

Weds 19th December: The best christmas card

My helpers treated me to lunch today and also a beautifully crafted Christmas card............featuring not Santa but a portrait of David Hockney..................perfect, what else could I want for Christmas?!..................Thank you very much guys!!!!

Weds 19th December: Freds Angels

Two thirds of the work force have managed to severe their fingers during high speed scalpel manouvres...........or at least thats how the story goes! After 2 weeks of intense paper cutting I am curious if methods of one hand texting have been put into opperation to aliviate the tedium............Either way, creativity came in use to nurse the wounds with no first aid kit to hand ...........a sanitary towell trimmed down proved a successfull substitute...........

Tue 18th December: The Stars

Monday 17th December: Ginglik

The warm up for the warm up.................in a small underground venue (converted toilet) on Shepherds Bush Green............Patrick Wolf and his band had a final practice for his end of year/tour gig on Thursday. I have found out that I am going to decorate the stage for the event at Shepherds Bush Empire. So we have 2 days to create some cosmic props to set off the incredible spectacle that will take place..............


This is a snapshot of the

Saturday 15th: Metronomy

The real genius I went to see was the support act "Metronomy". The 3 piece wear lights on their chests that turn on and off in time to the music. At this performance they were accompanied by the dance troop "sparkle motion" who had matching lights. It is the most unique and uplifting music performance I have seen for a long while. Im excited to see the future of this band.............

Here is the new single artwork which features a cardboard radio made by Set Designer Helen Macintyre. The video for the same song (Radio Ladio) also features her props. It has been directed by Dan and Colin (see links) and styled by John Colver a.k.a Leeds. Watch out for this video ...........i have seen back stage shots and it looks incredible..................

Saturday 15th: CSS

CSS at the Coronet was a fantastic festive visual feast. The band came on dressed as Christmas presents and their mascot had a cute Christmas tree outfit. But the winner was Lovefox herself who has stepped up her famous spandex body stockings. The 1st was accessorized with a puff ball cape of multicoloured gift bows. The 2nd was flesh colour with applique patches to look like a face........the shoulder pads were eyes with black fringing for the lashes............. a nose and a large grinning mouth across her midriff...........genius

Friday 14th December: Shine

Getting ready at the studio to go to the Christmas party at our set builders in Elephant & Castle. Andy Knights hosted a party called "Shine" so we threw on the glitz to dazzle................Hannah's hat is a shower cap sprayed gold with a bauble glue guned on as a nifty finish to a beutiful piece of spontaneous couture

Thursday 13th December: Jelly Launch

We received the new issue of Amelia's magazine today which includes the feature that Andy Macgregor and I collaborated on. "I love Jelly". Here is a snap of us on the day in our studio with photographer Amy Gwatkin and her rainbow socks. It took many days of experimentation and layering of colours to achieve our psychedelic jellies. It was equally tense and fun when it came to gently warming the moulds to turn them out. The residue of sticky sugary mess at the end was quite something........

Wednesday 12 December: V&A

Today we are shooting in the V&A amongst all the artworks and artefacts. Getting lost in the libraries and discovering galleries of gigantic plaster casts of monuments that I have never seen before. This museum is maaaaaaaasive............I want to come back one day for a snoop at the permanent collection to rediscover its treasures ..........

Tues 11th December: Delivery

I just delivered the family of pieces of that we conjured up this weekend for Nicola Formichetti...............done and dusted, back to the ongoing batch of accessories for the January Selfridges windows ................

Monday 10th December: Maki's Cake

Sunday 9th Dec: Archive Picture

At the studio still conjuring up spontaneous accessories and unable to preview results prior to anything being published............so here is something from the past. I have just received this image from photographer Kim Jakobsen To. He took it at the Show Studio event last fashion week that I took part in. This outfit is from a collection by my friend Alistair Carr circa aprox. 2002............over time I have been donated many treasures from his archive and here are some dream pieces based on a matador..............

Friday 7th December: Here's one I made earlier

We have 4 days to make 30 accessories for a last minute commission.................with a trip to £ Land, the race is on and the floor is getting covered in offcuts and scraps...........

Thursday 6th Dec: A.R.E Weapons

My friends Matt and Brain are currently over from NYC for a few gigs. I caught them at Madame JoJo's last night at Electrogogo. This is a flyer from a night when I first met them in 2001 when i was interning in New York .............
They are playing again on Saturday at RichMix, check their website for details

Wednesday 5th Dec: Black Balloon

Here is a recent acquaintance of mine called Bethan. I love her makeup and it fits quite well with the cheeky little character in Scotts
embroidery from the last post. She has just started an M.A at the Royal
College in product design but also runs her own successfuljewellery line. She makes necklaces from a design of tessellating pieces of wood so that there is no waste in the manufacture.................

Tues 4th Dec: Scott Ramsay Kyle loan

This is the work of the embroiderer extraordinaire Scott Ramsay Kyle. For fashion week in September he lent me a dream dress with rainbow metallic fringing which was the most cosmic thing I have ever worn. Unfortunately for me these pieces are out on shoots at the moment so i couldn't borrow another one for the Burberry party. But he did lend me this incredible piece of art! I dread to think how many hours of thumb gruelling stitching went into this. I Love it so much!

Monday 3rd December: Burberry Fragrance Launch

The exterior of Koko was decorated with Burberry umbrellas and the interior was walled with a mirror panelled tunnel. 3 gigantic screens covered the main auditorium with a looped projection of Agyness Deyn dancing. A chandelier of perfume bottles sparkled above our heads as a reminder of the reason behind this elaborate event. Boombox kids instigated an impromptu vogue dance-off which gave a refreshing spectacle to the otherwise corporate atmosphere of the very British Burberry tone. London is definitely kicking again.............literally.

Monday 3rd December: Dai Rees

Whilst outside LCF I bumped into Dai Rees who I interned for in 2001 and haven't seen for years. He has been a real inspiration to me in his creativity from found materials and also for being just a generally gorgeous sole. Here is an example of his millinery from the collection that I worked on in which he used goose plumes...............he first experimented with these feathers from collecting them whilst walking his German shepherd on Finsbury Park................he stripped them down to the spine to make the glittery spiky head cages for the early MQueen show pieces.................

Monday 3rd December Chris Moore: A Catwalk Retrospective

Holly and I had some books to return to LCF library so stalled by the retrospective exhibition of Chris Moore. A well edited selection of images from early black & white shots of house models holding number cards to current couture shows with the elaborate fantasy world sets. A fantastic memory jolt of collections that you might have forgotten about and insight to the original artist of the press pit.

Sunday 2nd Dec BoomBox

Here we are.........the green team......... Neel and his boyfriend John at one of the last ever nights of BoomBox................so much fun and a complete coincidence that I was in green to match my friends who travelled from Brighton ..............and carried their costumes (dustbin lid et all) around Madame Tussards before getting ready to come to the club...............

Saturday 1st December Making Thank you cards

Friday 30 November Dinner at Zandra Rhodes

I am so grateful to Bishi for taking me as her special guest to a dinner at Zandra Rhodes penthouse in Bermondsey. Not only was it a privilege to meet Zandra and Andrew Logan but also to witness the spectrum space which is dripping with both of their artwork. Zandra prepared the meal herself and served it on a selection of her own trademark crockery. I was very restrained and didn't slip the beautiful screen print napkin into my hand bag! The theme was to wear red which of course was a dream for me and made such a nice dinning experience set against the backdrop of the primary painted walls.

Friday 30 November The Loose Salute

Holly and I have been at Street studios doing the 'art department' for a shoot with the lovely photographer Tara Darby. We were taking press shots for a band called The Loose Salute who have a rainbow illustration on their album cover...............nice to know that my rainbow infatuation is now actually bringing me such specific work! From starting the day painting rainbows I finished the day sitting in a room painted as a spectrum..............bizarre but satisfyingly coincidental turn of events..............

Thursday 29th Nov CDG Fragrance Launch

By the evening I was becoming anguished that I didn't have anything to blog for the day...............until my studio mate Andy Mcgregor sidled in after a day's moonlighting in one of his secret string of dalliances with the modelling world..............he had spent the day dressed as a lab technician in Michael Howells installation at the press launch for 8 88. Here is the new scent packaging and the gold goggles that were made for his outfit...............

Wednesday 28 November CDG Festivities

After delivering pieces to Vogue house, Alex Hannah and I nipped round the corner to Dover Street to see the new Comme window display. Gary card has made his version of a santas grotto out of gaffa tape with intricate layers of strange beasties and and comic characters. It appears as one sculpture from the outside but on closer inspection of the cavenous artwork is another narrative of creatures inside the walls.
We tucked into our first mulled wine and mince pies of the season before wandering the floors to ogle over the incredible collections housed under this one roof. Thankyou CDG for the open house event, it was lovely!

Tuesday 27th November NOV27

Nova Dando invited me to her knitwear show at the Hoxton Boutique this evening. The shop has been transformed
and turned over to a great showcase of different fresh talents. The
flashing light cage dress here is Nova's and the pom pom ribbon dress
is that of Craig Lawrence. So exciting to see the new generation of
designers and their innovative raw talent. They have even made a
website especially for the event..........although I have to confess
that in mydyslexic mind I thought it was referencing her name when in fact of course it is the date!