Love from DARKROOM

"Heart is Dark" by Carolyn Massey

Love from DARKROOM is a collaborative exhibition of love hearts designed and created by the best artists,fashion designers,graphic artists,photographers and stylists all unified to support a greater cause.

Following the success of last year's inaugural Valentine charity exhibition,this year the profits of this wonderfully thoughtful idea will go to the Kids Company, a charity that works with vulnerable and neglected young people all accross London.

This year's artists and collaborators line-up includes the amazingly talented Carolyn Massey,DavidDavid and Hannah Martin.

Instead of running the streets to find the same old teddy bears and cards buy something for your loved one that is unique,designed with care by amazing artists and this way you can give back to people who could really use our help!

The show runs until the 14th of February at DARKROOM concept store and all pieces are exhibited and sold to the public for a set price of £150.

By Andreas Menelaou Features Assistant

The Wanderer

Uploading a film onto YouTube as an inventive exhibition of their clothing has now become the usual port-of-call for contemporary creatives, with Caroyln Massey being the latest designer to make good use of the social networking site. Masterfully shot by director Chris Brooks, the poignant short depicts Elite model Abiah Hostvedt wandering around the dramatic British countryside sporting Massey's elegant S/S 11 collection to the haunting melody of Tiago La Is Losing The Plot's "Lucien Guide".

Spicey Old Thing

It is important to have at least one very good laugh a day, and currently this is doing it nicely for me.

Despite the fact that Old Spice smells particularly harsh and reminds me of old, chain smoking men of yesteryear, this advert made me want to potter out and buy some from where ever it is that its stocked.

Am I alone in this? I think not. Do not take this as a 7th Man recommendation for a product, merely take it as light relief from an other wise groggy day after the night before, and what a night before, thank you to everyone who was in attenadance at Whisky Mist in honour of us lastnight: including Carolyn Massey and J W Anderson who was wearing those tremendous boots.

Merci, Gracias, Thank you.



www.youtube.com

Carolyn Massey: Obsolete Prototype C53

And so here we have the collection that set the standard for men's day on Wednesday 24th, and what a standard. The boys reminded me of ballet dancers with their dramatically sunken eyes, prominently shaded cheek bones and slickly swept back hair.

Massey's innate talent for knits was displayed to perfection: chunky, intrusive snoods were draped around necks, and striped, forties inspired, jumpers were kepeing the boy's leather clad bottoms warm.

Leather was adored throughout, as was a delicate shade of mauve - the exact same shade that popped into JW Anderson's collection - a new shade of elegance. Wool coats were worn open, loose and long.

Trousers were cropped emphasising the detailing on the brogue ankle boots, and introducing an interesting element of femininity to the scrutinizing masses: gaping, rope like, fishnet tights: a quirky detail which complimented the sartorial masculinity of the collection beautifully.

Carolyn Massey has firmly established herself at the very tip top of modern menswear.

All photos by James Pinkie Terry

Mensday LFW

The official mensday of LFW was kicked off today with spectacular shows by Carolyn Massey and JW Anderson respectively.

The two could not have contrasted more greatly: Massey's smooth palette of soft greys, tantalising mauves and dramatic blacks gave way to a more sophisticated take on the Gentlemen of AW10.

Crop trousers revelaed chunky fishnet tights disappearing into fabulously heavy, brogue - and work - ankle boots. The nake-up transformed the models into gothic ballerina's and the draped tops and gorgeous fabrics gave a liquidity to the collection that you made you wish it could go on forever.

JW Anderson's offering of what can only be described as Highland Punk was an exquisitely crafted collection, with chunky Arran knits shrouding the boys skinny frame: some left as raw wool others covered with gauze: creating a pillowed effect.

The boots resembled that of a 1930's deep sea diver, but with the weighty additions of studs, studded belts and - in some romantic cases - mauve roses (which gave the backstage area a divine aroma). These boots are serious hardware: could crush a mouse in one step type of hard wear.

Details Included: Jackets and bags made from tartan picnic baskets, raw edges, rolled up trousers, belts [everywhere].

The highland theme was so strong you could almost imagine the bagpipes blaring out as the boys were being dressed: but that would have been too obvious of course.

Camel was used for outerwear: firmly establishing it's essential presence for next A/W which i personally cannot wait for...



Tomorow our location photographer: James Terry will upload all of his fantastic images of backstage Mensday, and we shall take it from there.