Whats In My Bag?

Roald Dahl's George's Marvallous Medicine (free with Cherios)

Tesco's Club Card fobb

Front door key

Manopoly top hat keyring

Marc Jacobs circle plane keyring

2x Cinema stubbs

ipod Touch

Hand sanitiser

Phone

Topman recipt

Tissues

Burt's Bees lip barm

UCLan student card

Nivea SOS hand cream (must have for Winter)

Leather wallet

Rhodia note pad (where's my pen?!)

XXX mints

Mini deodrant

Cheapo Marc Jacobs green fingerless gloves

That's a regular day, am I turning into a woman?

Mark Khaisman's Tapework

Ukraine born Artist Mark Khaisman specialises in the niche market of recreating old film stills and photographs with none other than good old trusty Scotch Tape.

The former Architect, now based in Philidelphia, Khaisman say's he creates his work by using, " layer upon layer of translucent packing tape, applied to clear Plexiglas and placed in front of a light box to give the image shadow and depth. The 2-inch tape acts as a wide brush, and the light behind the panels as an alchemist's luminous blending medium."

On Khaisman's website he says it takes him a whole week to complete each new piece. He found this "tapework" technique by accident and was a natural progression from experimenting with glass work and playing with lighting effects. The overall effect fascinates me, but I can only imagine it looks 10 times more impressive in real life.

See more about Mark Khaisman's work here

Images source

Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour

Norman Parkinson's work was truly innovative, he wasn't satisfied in a studio environment so he took his subjects outside into everyday settings. This made is work and visions become alive. Parkinson was one of the first to perfect this idea; locations shoots are the norm in Fashion nowadays, all thanks to this great man.

To see more of his work, which stretches over 70 years, go see the Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour exhibition at Somerset House, London. If you can't make it to London you can pick up the book of the same name.

French Vogue October 2009

Lara Stone + theatrical styling + crazy body paint = My kind of photo shoot. Somethings it's good to play it save, people will say "oh yeah that's cool, nicely done", but nothing more. Sometimes it's good to go all out and go crazy and this shoot in French Vogue is a pretty good example of it paying off.

Model - Lara Stone

Photographer - Steven Klien

Styling - Carine Roitfeld

Images via Coute Que Coute

Clothes for all types of Folk

Another email that caught my eye today was the weekly newsletter from oki-ni, but for the first time it actually made me smile. The email was all about "Winter Warmers", which included lots of woollies from Pendleton, Jil Sander and Folk.

What made me smile so much was the Folk "People" cardigan, I you can guarantee if anyone saw you on the street or at the shops wearing it, it would instantly make them smile too. Setting of a snowball effect of smiles, from person to person as you go about your regular day. I am all for this!

The Folk cardigan in question, in bright red with little characters circling the bottom of the sleeves.

Close up of the sleeves, I love how childlike and non-descript they look. Gives them a playful cartoony feel.

You can also snap yourself up a matching "People" scarf, just imagine the joy on people's somewhat usually glum Winter faces.

Cardigan, scarf and images from oki-ni

Winter Made Warmer

I woke up today with the postman knocking at the door(this will probably be a rare event from now on, with all the postal strike action going on of late). The first thing I thought was, oh damn it's another ebay parcel thats been redirected back to my house, but no. To my surprise the lovely and very generous people at Ark clothing online have sent me two jumpers, and just in time for the chilly weather too!

The first one is a Fred Perry v-neck merino wool jumper in a lovely warm burgundy colour. This colour instantly reminded me of Steve from Style Salvage latest post "In Amongst the Fallen Leaves", where he shows us all his creative side and what can be achieved with a simple splash of colour this Autumn.

Great shade for the colder months, Fred Perry v-neck in burgundy with contrasting purple logo. Can't wait to wear this bad boy, already planning on wearing it with my Carolyn Massey x Topman coat.

The second one is a Penguin by Musingwear navy v-neck in the softest mix of cotton and cashmere. This is now officially the softest jumper in my wardrobe. Being a cotton/cashmere mix this is slightly roomier than the Fred Perry one, so it's going to be perfect come January time.

Cashmere mix Penguin v-neck jumper, in dark navy with subtle turquoise logo.

The one thing that my winter wardrobe lacks in jumpers, can you believe I only had one before these arrived? I bought the Matthew Williamson x H&M pink and purple cashmere jumper earlier this year. What can I say, I wasn't a jumper person, until now. These will go nicely with the abundance of Uniqlo socks I have, in nearly ever shade, pretty much the best socks around in terms of colours, durability and price. I think if me and Steve ever bumped into each other we would look like a rainbow had been sick on us, or that we had been attacked by a peacock.

Next on the Winter wish list is a pair of black oxford lace-ups, black Dr Marten shoes, dark green cashmere scarf and a new jacket of some sorts.

Thanks again to the nice people at Ark Clothing, you just made my cold days a whole lot warmer. Visit their online store for more by Fred Perry, Penguin and other brands like Dr Denim, Farah and Nixon watches.

You can now follow Buckets and Spades on Twitter, just click the link.

Slow progress

Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground of late, just a case of business really. Thanks for your patience, normal blogging will resume very very shortly....

Just a quick reminder about the competition I'm running, to win a pair of T.U.K Creepers. To enter click HERE . Or you can get the answer to the question HERE (how thick are the soles of the Mondo Lo creepers) and post a comment to this post with the answer and your email address.

Closing date is "creeping" up, so hurry up!

Inspiration - Owning it

Sartorial choices have never been so well considered. I stumbled across this image a few months back, I love the cockiness of their stances, they are owning that street thats for sure.

A Chilling Spring / Summer 10

We're not even into our proper Autumn yet here, it's getting colder but not really enough to pull the scarf and gloves out(though I have bought several new items in preparation). Not that I want it to hurry up to get warmer but it's nice to look ahead and see what trends will be trickling down to the high street. Looking through a few collections it's plain to see that coppers, metallics, icy sheers, silvers/golds and iridescent are dominating. Fashion156 have done a round up of all the emerging trend here.

Strong collections featuring these qualities are James Long, Katie Eary, Mark Jacobs, Fendi and Hugo by Hugo Boss:

Hugo by Hugo Boss s/s 2010 offerings. The icy blues with white is one of my favourite looks of the season.

Perfectly fitting tailored trousers, striped blazers and long vests are paired with some wicked looking sandals.

Icy whites and deep navys are matched with unexpected gold coin embellished sections and trims (lets call the exaggerated trimmings).

How brilliant are the gold sections, I just know if I tried something like this at home it would turn out terrible, and I guess that's why I'm not a machinist! I can see the theme coming through in some of the high street shops but not so much the shiny golds for me, well maybe some questionable attempts in Zara.

Images from Vogue.uk

Quick DIY Project

This is possibly the quickest and easiest DIY project I have ever done. I've seen there Karl Who? bags knocking about the net for a while and I know you could get them at Colette for €50. But it seems very unnecessary to even pay for a bag that is so easy to do yourself. Even Karl himself got in on the act.

Alls you need:

1 plain canvas tote bag ( picked one up on ebay for 85p)

Black acrylic paint - Has to be acrylic as it's water resistant

1 paintbrush

Newspaper

That's it. Make sure you cover the area in newspaper and place newspaper inside the bag, to prevent paint transferring through to the other side.

And paint away, simples! Make sure you don't make the "who" to big and squish the "?" up like I did though.

Look of the Week

Well, technically Look(s) of the Week, with male and female offerings this time. Both outfits are the perfect fit. Mr Hack's of Dazed&Confused fame is oozing character and confidence in that tweed suit and creepers. Not too sure who the lady in the bottom photo is but you can just tell she has a brilliant wardrobe, and maybe French?

Images from Vanessa Jackman

COMPETITION: T.U.K Creepers Giveaway

The classic Brothel Creeper has been around for an absolute age, pioneered in World War 2 by the English troops. The shoes were adapted by the soldiers becasue they were so hard wearing and fitting for the environment. When the war was over the style soon found its way to the streets and clubs around England. With their uniform of 14 cm wide drainpipe trousers, brightly coloured socks, velvet trimmed drape coats, bootlace ties and immaculately tamed slicked hair the Teddy Boy's of the 1950s were a true underground revolution. Those guys were pretty fearsome, many were know to hang around in large groups, some carrying flick knifes, . You wouldn't have wanted to run into them in a dark alley.

Classic Mondo Low creeper in black & white, featuring classic d-ring lacing, crepe sole and weaving

Mondo Low creepers in white & black

Creepers fell out of favour with the British as other street trend evolved but they have never really gone away, always a shoe that is bubbling under the limelight and never really going mainstream. A firm favourite on the catwalk throughout the years, the crepe sole shoes always seem to be a staple for the fashion designers looking for something a bit more robust and punk. You may remember my post on Ziad Ghanem’s show at London Fashion Week a couple of weeks back and for ever featuring in editorials and popping up on fellow blogger's wish lists.

Now I have always been a huge fan of creepers and when the good at T.U.K offered me a pair to give away for one of my readers I jumped at the chance.

Rules of the competition:

• All you have to do to be entered for the competition is tell me how thick the sole of the MONDO LO creepers is (Pictured above). Find the answer HERE at the T.U.K's official blog.
• Send the answer in a comment to the post, in cm's with your name and email address
• The competition is open worldwide and shoe sizes ranging from uk 2 - 12
• The Winner will be drawn out of a hat at random and will be able to pick which colour creepers they want from the two pictured in this post.
• The competition will run for one month, ending 3rd November.

So there we go, I wish I could have them myself!

Any finally, good luck!

Homme+ is out

It's even out in my local WHSmiths, but why must they put it in the "GAY" section. All the mens fashion magazines go in there, what are they playing at.