Interview With: Nicholas Kirkwood

Last week I got the chance to do a short interview with womens footwear designer, Nicholas Kirkwood, for the The Fashion Network. It was a great oppurtunity for me, as I am naff at interviews, so I thought I would post it on here;


Nicholas Kirkwood, who is known for his craftsmanship and innovative designs was proud to present this exclusive collection to a small number of press at the Manchester Harvey Nichols store. For all that haven't heard of Nicholas Kirkwood, you are sure to have seen some of his designs before. Some verging on the edge of avant-garde, his creations have graced some of the biggest stars in fashion and Hollywood, Sarah Jessica Parker wore a pair from his new collection all the way through the Sex And The City promotions. The use of shapes, fits and colours are instantly recognisable and the man himself was kind enough to talk to us about the collection, influences, ideas and what's next for the brand;

The Fashion Network - Could you give us a brief background on how you got into womens footwear. Have you always designed shoes?


Nicholas Kirkwood - I started off at college studying Fine Art, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I was older but I knew it would be something design based, as this was the only thing I was good at. When I was younger a started off working for hat designer, Philip Treacy (about 10 years ago). I would observe the clients that would come in closely. It was my job to style the accessories. When someone came in with a whole outfit planned I would always notice that the shoes would always let it down, they would choose an average 50s style. I thought to myself, there is no-one out there doing what I could do, I wanted to work with the negative space, for example the space between the heel.


TFN - What is your inspiration source?


NK - Not one set thing, movies, architecture or it could even be a feeling. When I'm designing it's usually proportions, angles, fabrics, mixes of colour. It can come from anywhere really, for instance being in a certain place or situation or just the season. This season I looked closely at the Victorian period, so lace, ankle boots, structures and high enclosures. Attention to detail!

TFN - What makes your designs unique?


NK - The upper patterns, the new shapes I'm trying to design and again, the use of negative space. I try to invent new shoes instead of referencing the past.


TFN - Has a celebrity that has been seen wearing your shoes ever influenced a sale?


NK -The thing is with this is, I try and get my shoes on the right people, I would much prefer people in the fashion industry to be wearing my shoes that another celebrity. The right people in London is key, but still the more people seen in them, ultimately equals more sales.


TFN - When designing a collection, who do you have in mind? Customer wise.

NK - I don't have an actual person in mind, it's more an imaginary person. Various customers all mixed together, in different parts of the world. We sell in 35 countries around the world now so I picture one of them from a selected county and design for them. Every market place is totally different, the Russians and Ukraines are starting to get really interested in my designs, they want a different approach from the west but still know what time like. We are looking to opening more stores in those areas.


I also imagine customers in Dover Street Market in London, where I have my own space, their customers are really great to design for.


TFN - What's the toughest part of the making process?


NK - Without a doubt, the manufacturing side. It has been really hard to find the right factory, I have had a few and the amount of times they have been late with deadlines is untrue. I have found a good balance with out now, this was the factory I used to launch my first proper collection.

TFN - What can we expect from you in the future?


NK - New silhouettes, creating different and innovative shapes across the foot, less close at the top like the last. The collections are usually around 100 pieces each, starting at around £500. I want to design a smaller menswear range too, that would be more about attention to design than extravagant design. Also handbags, sunglasses, jewellery, and even some short films.


TFN - What advice do you have for any young designers?


NK - Try to get a team together, you can't do it all alone. You need to find a team you can trust and work with for 24 hours a day. You need the people to be able to bounce ideas off, change things, suggest different ways. You need to be 100% tight with these people, as they will be your business partners and ultimately, your friends. Also, find the right factory for you!

Emma from TFN, Nicholas Kirkwood and me!

Nicholas Kirkwood's full collection is exclusively available at the Harvey Nichols store in Knightsbridge, with the possibly to branch out to other stores in the future. Enquiries can be made though any of their store.


Images courtesy of Harvey Nichols.


So there you go, pretty exciting stuff. Let me know what you think and how I did?

Mississippi Mud Pie

I was all out of good ideas for Hollies birthday, seems as I have used up all my good ideas! So I decided to bake her a cake, Mississippi Mud Pie to be exact, one of her favs. If you're interested here is there recipe I used:

Ingredients,

For the base

300g bourbon biscuits, crushed

85g butter, melted

For the filling

85g dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids for sure

95g/ butter

2 free-range egg

85gmuscovado sugar

100ml double cream

For the fudge sauce

150g dark chocolate

150ml double cream, plus extra to serve

3 tbsp golden syrup

175g icing sugar, sieved

On to the fun bit

Preheat the oven to 180C/365F/Gas 4.

-Mix the biscuits and melted butter together in a bowl. Press the mixture into the base and sides of a 23cm/9in springfrom tin. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
-For the filling, melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. (Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water).
-Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl for 5-6 minutes, or until thick and creamy. Fold in the cream and melted chocolate mixture. Pour into the chilled springform tin and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until just set. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely.
-Then for the fudge sauce, heat all of the fudge sauce ingredients in a saucepan, stirring regularly, over a medium heat until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Set aside till cool.

Spread the sauce over the cooled pie and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Serve with tones of double cream!

Simple as that and I can safely say it tasted brilliant. Not too shabby for my first ever cake hey!
-

Also, I was tagged by Ella Master's the other week, if you haven't visited her blog you really should. She does the sweetest water colours and illustrations. Here goes:

10 things I like( in no particular order)

1. Nature

2. Furniture and architecture

3. Strong coffee with cake

4. Anything to do with space

5. 50s/60s rock/pop/blues music

6. Workwear/Heritage

7. Improvised comedy

8. My girlfriend

9. Art and photography

10. Cheese and beans on toast with brown sauce and black pepper

Sam Winston's Words

"Pencil Drawing"

"Dictionary Story Book"

"Romeo & Juliet"

"Silent Listen"

"Made Up True Story"

"Folded Dictionary"

"Darwin"

I discovered Sam Winston's work here when I was doing my daily blog rounds, sometime last week. His work really struck a cord with me, as his creations are all based around words. But using words in a different way than they were intended. 

The original blog post on I Don't Eat Bread, featured a project based around Charles Darwin, where Winston went through a complicated process of going through one of Darwin's books and counting all the "nouns", "verbs", "adjectives" and "other", each time applying a dot to his paper. The finished product is really profound(the last image). There is much more to the project that what I have said and if you are interested, you should visit his site to see much more.

There's something about his work that is really sticking with me, would like to hear your thoughts too, what do you think?

All images from Sam Winston

Close Up And Private Art Series

For longtime followers of my blog you may remember some months back sharing some images by Sergei Sviatchenko, the man behind the colour world of Close Up And Private. If you need inspiration on colour combos and quirky styling ideas, his site is well worth a visit. For this season Sviatchenko is staking a slight different direction, by painting some of his favourite photographs from his Spring/Summer period.

His work just puts a smile on my face, no reading between the lines or political messages, it's just straight down the line joy. He is updating his website all the time, adding new photographs here and there and is a constant source of inspiration but these paintings show his work in a totally different light.


Images via Selectism. Visit Close Up And Private for more nicness


Thanks for everyones nice comments about Tilly on my previous post.

Testing Out A New Lens

Well not strictly a new lens, but Jamesy trying out the camera on the new iphone. Wearing my new Gap shirt.

Turns out there loads of type of effects and lens you can download for the iphone camera, now I know this may not be a new thing but I'm really liking its capabilities. There's even Diana lens and other 50s ones, for anyone who follows me on Twitter you may have seen loads of tweets about me trying to decide which digital camera to buy. I've settled on the Canon IXUS 95 IS and it should be arriving tomorrow. I will still be using my SLR but for the more quick snappier times this is going to come in handy.

I was looking enough to do attend a group interview with footwear designer Nicholas Kirkwood today, for The Manchester Fashion Network. Once it's up on the site I will post the interview on here, for all to see!

Thanks for all your comments on the last post regarding Tilly the dog, sadly Hollie had to have her put down a couple of days ago as she got much worse. It's really sad to think I won't hear her baking at me when I come through the front door ever again. Bye bye Tilly.


A special mention to That's So Yesterday, who mentioned me on her first video blog orrr vlog, everyone should check it out, it's a super cool idea and she does it really well. I'd do one but I have a silly Blackpool accent.

Winter Shoes In Summer

I picked up these vintage Dr Marten shoes on ebay a few weeks back for under £10. Perfectly worn up but in near perfect condition inside, the perfect combination I think! I've worn Dr Martens boots for a few years now but I've never really been happy about the way they look on me, too chunky/massive looking? So as a happy in between I thought a pair of the classic "postman" shoes may suit me more. Turns out I was right, I'm so chuffed with these and wasn't expecting to be wearing them till the colder months. The clouds bring lots of rain this week, so I've been giving them a test drive.

Wearing - Stripey t-shirt, Topman, diy painter's trousers, H&M, yellow socks, Uniqlo, vtg shoes, Dr Martens.

I think I should stop trying to look cool and just smile, so I'm pulling out a tiny grin.

Tilly, the cheeky little dog. She is really unwell at the moment, which is really sad. So we are spending as much time as we can with her at the moment. She's been a big part of the family for about 11 years, I didn't like dogs before I met Tilly, I am now officially converted.

I made a Mississippi Mud Pie for Hollie's birthday, which was yesterday, I will post some pictures of the it soon. It was my first attempt at baking a cake! Have a nice weekend everyone. 

Timberland "Earthkeepers" - Break It Down

The name Timberland conjurs up all sorts of bad vibes these days, mainly because of their popularity spanning from the early 90s, with hip-hop culture(though I have to admit Will Smith and Wu-Tang made them look cool).  Nowadays the classic tan Timberland boots are seen as a bit of a taboo, so when I received an email from the brand themselves asking if I wanted to road test a pair of the "Earthkeeper" boat shoe, I was just about shocked at how slick they looked. I jumped at the chance of course.

Timberland's "Earthkeeper" range has been running for a while now but this was the first I'd heard of it. The premise behind the collection is that all parts of their collection are 100% environmentally friendly, as the green rubber label suggests. This is something I am very down with, as I'm quite conscious when it comes to things like this. We really should look after the world every way we can, after all, this is the only one we're got!

Each part of the shoe is designed to be easily taken apart when we are finished with them and 90% of the shoe can we recycled, while the other 10 percent accounts for the laces and stitching(which can be reused). The whole shoe is designed for comport, I can never find shoes I'm 100% comfortable in, I usually use granddad insoles but I really wouldn't have to with these. Away I go!

Green Rubber logo features on the sole. While this bit wears down the upper of the shoe can be send back to the original factory and refurbished for the next user.

Wearing - Navy chinos, ASOS, pink and purple socks, Tabio, tan leather "Earthkeeper" boat shoes, Timberland.

I've actually really changed my mind about Timberland and some of their products(obviously not the silly big boots though!). They have tones of ace shoes and shirts I'd defiantly wear and now offer a customising service a la Nike/Reebok.


Wonder how long they will last until I can recycle them? Click here to find out more about the Earthkeeper project.

Old Blackpool

The ABC Cinema, where The Beatles once played

Noah's Ark, the oldest ride at The Pleasure Beach

Blackpool Central Train Station, now a car park

The bottom of my street! It actually still looks like this minus the tram

My hometown doesn't really look like this, it's lost a lot of its charm. Faded seaside glamour at its best. When I was a teenager I did used to hate it but somehow I have grown to love it again. It's tacky but it knows it is. The thing that really ruins it is the train loads of "party people" every week.


Has your home town passed the test of time?

...And The Winner Is - Ray-Ban Competition

Thanks to each and every one of you for entering the Ray-Ban competition, which were courtesy of the chaps at Equip.


I'll cut to the chase, the winner of the sunglasses is.....

Not Just Medical

Commiserations to everyone else, hopefully I will be holding more competitions in the near future. A big hello to all my new followers too.


*Message to the winner, please send me a comment or email me so we can get it all sorted!

The Art of Jim Denevan

I stumbled upon Jim Denevan's sand art over at Into Calio and had to share them. The idea of temporary work that can actually last for ever in picture form is pretty though provoking really. Visit his website to see more of his work.


Thank you to everyone for your comments on my last diy post, if any of you do decide to give it a go ourself please let me know, I'll be interested to see how yours have turned out! Hope everyone is having a good nearly-weekend time.

Ray-Ban Competition Reminder

Thanks to all your entries up to now. Just a quick reminder, you have till midnight on Friday (9th, July) to enter the Ray-Ban Competition.


If you already haven't all you need to do is one of the below:

1. Follow me on Google Connect - click the follow button on the right hand sidebar

2. Follow me on Twitter

3. Mention the giveaway on your Twitter/Facebook(by tweet or RT) or on your own blog

Please leave a comment on this post stating which of these you have done (you can enter more than once but PLEASE leave separate comments for each one). Include links to mentioned and tweets in the comments too, so I know where we are up to. Thanks again to Equip.

DIY Painter's Trousers

Wearing -Charity shop button-down shirt, H&M diy painter's chinos, Shoo blue suede desert boots, Fossil leather tote bag from Equip.


After yesterday's post on my little diy I decided to wear them that day. First off, please ignore my daft face, it was really sunny! I thought was, best to keep it simple. So it's exacully what I did, only went for a cheeky trip to the shops but this is what I wore them with. I'm pretty chuffed with the result, I like the fact that the H&M chinos are pretty loose fitting. It's pretty known that Izzy from The Dandy Project is the king of the diy, so I'm dedicating me efforts to him!


As well as Equip being so nice in letting me run the Ray Ban's competition(still time to enter!) they also sent me a gift for myself, the tan leather Fossil tote bag. Very kind of them, I have to say. I'm always on the hunt for new staples for my wardrobe, this is the newest edition. It has an array of pockets and compartment, which is what I need and not too clumpy looking.

DIY - Life In The Old Dog Yet

I've been mulling over my wardrobe over the past few months. As I have cut my spending habits and now only buying things that I think will either last the test of time or not just get bored off, I thought it would be an idea to try and revive some old stuff instead of getting rid.

Boring old chinos, a back of the cupboard jobby. So I needed to bring life back into the old dogs. I have separate painting clothes, which obviously get really messy with paint, but I always like the effect all the random paint splattering gives. I've also always had the images of Alexander McQueen's S/S 10 collection in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to give it a bash.

The Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2010 presentation featured an array of paint splattered looks. Image from GQ.com

A couple of blobs of acrylic paint is all I needed.

I'm like a kid when I comes to mess, still love it.

I first I thought I'd gone overboard with the paint but screw it, so I just added more.

The finished product, pretty simple really. I decided to stop at the thighs, incase I took it too far, as there's no turning back. I splashed a bid on the back pockets and lower leg too.

I haven't got a shot of me wearing them yet, as I haven't actually worn them but I will do soon. Has anyone else done any DIYs with paint before, what did it turn like? What do you think of my effort?

Keep those Ray-Ban Competition entries coming, you have until 9th July to enter if you already haven't.