Dissection of a look

This is Phil Meech’s brilliant dissection of my science-inspired knits. Always picking up on the stitch detail, graphic lines and texture; his style of shooting is exacting yet spontaneous and honest.  The series of shots for AW11 create a wonderful narrative throughout the lookbook, which will be on the website this week. In the meantime, his brilliance is on show in the SS11 Lookbook: www.brookeroberts.net

This season’s knitwear programmes were inspired by an x-ray calibration film – assessing grey scales according to exposure (a product of kVp and mAs – for those of you into radiation physics). I programmed the knitted jacquards from the x-ray film, mixing yarns in multi-tones of grey, camel and natural cashwool.

The garment construction incorporates tailoring techniques, and focuses heavily on silhouette and style-lines. The yarns used include 3M retro-reflective, cashmere, silk, extra-fine merino wool, wool mousse boucle’ and camel hair.  The accessories are Eye of The World Designs for Brooke Roberts: hand-crafted wood, perspex and PVC belts and hats.

Techno-luxe. Trad-future.

Tanti Baci

CiR

As mentioned in my previous blog post, I’ve been shortlisted for The Hospital Club’s Creatives in Residence Award. The Award is unique in that it fosters cross-arts projects and relationships, with Awards being given in the fields of Theatre, Film & TV, Visual Arts, Design, Fashion, Music and Dance. I’m hoping to add science-inspired design to the mix.

Previous winners include Destiny Ekaragha, who wrote and directed the short film Tight Jeans (watch it, it’s great!) and Dean Quinn.

The Hospital Club has the first HD film studio, and other incredible facilities for creative people to work and play.

Here’s the shortlist (click to make it fullsize):

The winner of each category is announced on March 17th. Stay tuned!

Tanti Baci

(capsule) – Paris Fashion Week

And so fashion month storms on; current location: Paris.  I’m at (capsule) showroom in Garage Turenne.  It’s a light, bright, industrial space – the perfect backdrop for my AW11 CALIBRATION collection.

I’m still on a huge high from being shortlisted for CiR at The Hospital Club. The Awards Presentation is on March 17th, so more on that soon!

Tanti Baci

 

Knitalia AW11

I’m back at the knitwear factory in Italy, programming and designing with just knitting machines for company. They don’t argue. They don’t answer back. They don’t swear at me in Italian. It’s all good.

So to AW11. The 3M developments are looking great. And while I’m looking forward in terms of yarn and knitting techniques, the mood for AW11 is from the past – albeit a Science-inspired past. Space travel, new-age synthetic fabrics, industrial precision – it must be Pierre Cardin.

Enjoy:

Of the 45,000-odd views, quite a few are mine.  It’s my ultimate fashion show film.

Tanti Baci

BCF rules!

In my previous post I neglected to mention the little matter of my four weeks’ holiday in Southern Queensland. Family time! I relaxed a bit, worked a bit, and met my new nephew Alexander. Fun times.

I got completely sucked in to the beauty of my bro’-in-law’s fish tank, and spent hours in BCF (that’s the Boating, Camping, Fishing superstore, peeps) exploring silicone fishing skirts (not at all what they sound), cast and hand-painted fishing lures and all manner of glittery, squidgy, rattling fishing kit. It was ace – stay tuned for SS12.

For now, here’s where the inspiration started:

And finally, Brisbane city pre-flood:

Support the Red Cross Flood Appeal here

Support the Queensland Flood Appeal here

Happy Australia Day.

3M …continued

Happy 2011, Lovelies.

2011 is already flying. It’s been a busy period of x-raying, knitwear programming, knitwear consultancy and designing my AW11 collection.  I received an email from wordpress with my 2010 Blog-Health-o-Meter™ saying ‘Wow, you’ve done well’.  You ain’t seen nothing yet, WordPress!

3M is still blowing my mind, and my camera flash. Check these:

It’s incredibly difficult to work these yarns, but who cares when they look so beautifully alive? More updates to come from Knitaly.

Tanti Baci

3M Scotchlite retro-reflective yarn

Morning peep’s. It’s dark and rainy in Northern Italy, and absolutely freezing…. A great time to be knitting chunky cashmere and merino wool – if I wasn’t busy knitting  3M scotchlite retro-reflective yarn! It’s a very fine yarn created by bonding tiny glass beads onto a manufactured base yarn.

Here’s 3M next to it’s woolly cousin:

Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of wool. Especially Australian Merino. In fact, my uncles produce some of the finest Merino wool exported from Australia.  So 3M will be pairing up with Extrafine Merino in a techno-luxe match made in heaven.

Tanti Baci

X-rated cakes

I’m blogging at ya from the knitwear factory in Italy. I’m Consulting for a Menswear label… but more about that later.

I just stopped for a break, (and to feed my twitter addiction), and discovered something I’d much rather be eating….

I’d like to say I’ll be blogging the delights themselves, but alas, the Evil cake shop is only open from 29-31st October. I’ll be here in Italy, knitting like an evil woman starved of cake.

If you make it down there, let me know which body part you ate.

Tanti Baci

Science is Vital

This afternoon at King Charles St, Westminster, around 2000 Scientists, Doctors, Students and other believers in the importance of science gathered to discuss issues surrounding the Coalition’s planned funding cuts. I snapped these placards from inside the crowd:

For anyone who believes in the NHS, finding cures for deadly diseases, advancing technology, saving the planet through green energy solutions and the UK’s heritage and future as a pioneer of science, click Science is Vital for more information, and sign the petition to support the Science is Vital campaign.

Tanti Baci

SS11 ‘Cuts’ Look book

London Fashion Week is over and it’s on to preparation for Paris Fashion Week.  Here are a few shots of the collection from my SS11 Look book. The full book will be hitting my website soon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Credits:

Model: Hannah Noble @Elite London

Photography: Philip Meech

Styling: Hope Von Joel

Hair: Philippe Tholimet

Make-up: Emma Williams

Tanti Baci