Monday 29 March 2010

Start your races day fashionably at Radisson Blu. (exclusive firecracker discount)

I've just been talking to my brother the director of sales at the Radisson about the final plans for my races fashion shoot for Select magazine.

He's asked me to tell you all about his suggestion for the best way to start your day at the races, with the Radisson Blu's deluxe champagne breakfast. The generous bugger has said you can have an exclusive 20% off if you quote Firecracker.

 Just email Ben at ben.ford@radissonblu.com to book your private space over looking the river, Don't forget to mention Firecracker. I hear lots of Racing industry Glitterati are staying so the chances are you will get some hot betting tips.





Matt. x

Saturday 27 March 2010

Hannah Ellen make-up artist. 'what men really think of your make-up.' (Gossip magazine column.)

Hannah writes her own blog featuring all her work with my self,  other photographers, fashion shows and weddings.



Click to enlarge.....

(Portraits by Matt Ford)

Gossip Magazine is available from Liverpool 1 and all city centre train stations.
Check out there website.  

Also in this issue is the interview and my shoot with Club geek chic...







Enjoy. Matt x

Friday 26 March 2010

Roja Boutique Liverpool Spring/Summer collection.

Photography Matt Ford.
Hair & Make-up Hannah Ellen. 
Model Chloe Addison.
Stylist Faye Wilson.
Assistant Danielle Timperley.
ROJA (pronounced Rocca)
Ladies boutique:
Couture, Vintage, Everyday wear, Accessories, Shoes.

They have everything you need to stand out from the crowd!!!

Also avilable:
Professional Style Advisors,
Colour Analysis,
Wardrobe Advisor.



Cheak out their facebook











Tuesday 9 March 2010

Fashion In Wonderland.

Have you been to see Alice in Wonderland yet?

After being lucky enough to get hold of the last 3 tickets on opening night I thought I was going to be in for a treat. However Burton wanted to ground the new story not making another film with disjointed scenes and crazy characters. I thought that was what the intentions of Lewis Carroll were in the first place? Not that I'm claiming to be a film critic or anything but I couldn't help but feel let down by the certain loss of the nostalgic dream like fairytale the original stories had.  Thankfully this wasn't so for the fashion storyline.

With an ever-increasing obsession of late for fashion history, I've been purposefully drawn to seeking out enjoyment from watching film such as The young Victoria and Coco before Chanel. Whilst both being unique and memorable films in their own right, they also serve the purpose of being an accurate representation of fashions gone by and a great insight to how and why clothes have evolved into what we wear today.

Seeing what modern takes on classic Victorian styles had been commissioned by the romanticist and visionary film director Tim Burton in Alice in Wonderland made the ticket worth every penny. Thankfully taking the attention off a story line that seemed to lacked anything inspiring or original.

In charge of designing Alice's six different costumes and the rest of the characters looks is two times Academy award winner Colleen Atwood. Arguably the best in the business with credits like Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago. The film started with classic Victorian dresses. Even though the rebel Alice was lacking in the iconic crinoline (the under skirt cage-frame to make skirts stand out) that had hit an all time size during the 1860s when the book was originally written.







It's not until the story heads to Wonderland do you really start to see the full creative genius of Colleen. She says, ''Alice was a nod to tradition until Wonderland, then I was took to another place.'' 

With no restriction of era and a new older Alice (minus the childish pinafore), the costumes become more like timeless creations by the best couture houses of Paris of today. Combinations of varying hues of the iconic 'Alice' blue and mixes of ribbon, lace, embroidery and silk often put together in a deconstructionist way made them vaguely reminiscent of Vivian Westwood ensembles and other fanciful designers of today.


Now with a fashion language relevant today, whilst keeping true to the spirit of the story, the new take on Alice has widened its pulling power, appealing to a new fashion savvy audience. Disney has made no secret of this move, commissioning the best in the field to design capsule collections inspired by the film. Headed by the slogan 'Alice is the new black' the commissions including Avant Garde Jewellery designer Tom Binns. He has two collections. One for Disney couture- a lower priced range of trinkets including 'drink me' bottles (see below) and Wonderland themed charm bracelets. The other, a range of exquisite necklaces, demanding a heftier price of up to £900 and is for Disney Signature. (See page 64 of this months Vogue and below)


Stella McCartney has also been drafted in to create jewellery pieces and Urban Decay Make-up, Sue Wong, Swarovski and Uniglo are all on the merchandising bandwagon. But can this be considered true fashion? This has caused much debate but according to many fashion experts the film has inspired numerous S/S10 collections in less obvious ways. So with feminine dressing back in vogue, from powerful businesswomen to everyday girls. Alice, with her determined and feisty soul could easily be placed at the helm of this movement. Proving that Alice really is fashion latest muse.

Matt. x


Disney Couture...


Disney Signature...



See other alice inspired designs....

Monday 8 March 2010

Close swap and designer buy website www.Myfashionjunkie.com goes live.

You may have read my post a while back about MFJ. Well they are finally on line. If you click the link to the post underneath you can read the interview I did for them for Select Magazine and see the photo shoot I did for the website home pages. Or simply click to go straight to their website.

The brief description of what they do is you sell your unwanted clothes to them for MFJ credit and with it you buy stuff back off their website. Plus they have featured designers. They're a very new company but over the next few weeks I imagine there's gonna be an ever increasing number of cool items on there.

I'm also looking forward to them doing mens stuff in the near future!




My fashion junkie interview and full shoot. 

www.Myfashionjunkie.com

Matt. xx

Saturday 6 March 2010

Mad Hatters Tea party, today @ Kirsty Doyles Store.

I better make this VERY quick, my next client is due in about 35 seconds.

I've just been for a quick nose in Kirsty's store. (right by urban outfitters and Habitat, L1.) She has the delicious Jemma Volp-Fletcher giving out her fabulous cakes from her 'Cup of love bakery' and Hannah Ellen is giving make-up demos on passers by (you).

You can also pop in for a cup of raspberry tea. I didn't stay long enough for that but I did run off with a  massive box of cakes! She's open till 8 tonight so I will see you later on if you decide to go.



I've also just finished Kirsty's website cover shots, here's a look.....



Part of Kirsty's inspiration this year was wild summer nights, so we have included some dramatic skies into the images.

Photos-Me
Hair and Make-up Hannah Ellen.
Model- Candy McCulloch.

Matt. xx

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Future Fashion. New shoot exclusive to Select Magazine and Firecracker fashion.

After a short break from my fashion spot in Select magazine I’m back with a new shoot.
The thought process behind it stems from a seeing so many 80’s, 90’s, 50’s etc inspired shoots at the moment. Being a new decade, its time we looked to the future to see what new ideas in fashion are out there.
I started looking at famously fashion forward designers like Gareth Pugh and the late Alexander McQueen to see what futuristic visions they have been creating and if I could spot any of those elements filtered down onto the high street. Then It was the task of first time stylist, Lois to pull in 4 looks with the above in mind. The more we looked though the more we realized so much of the clothes available now days seems to blatantly references to old styles.
However after lots of trawling, this is what we found..

Photography Matt Ford.
Make-up Hannah Ellen.
Stylist and Hair Lois Molloy.
Model Nicola Farr @pulse Agency

Dress- The Dressing room £220. Shoes Topshop- £85
Click images to enlarge. 
Whole outfit from Topshop Liverpool.
Whole outfit from Topshop Liverpool.
Dress- Topshop Unique-£85. Shoes Prisila Sandal- Topshop-£120


(following text By Daniel Lackey.)       FASHIONING THE FUTURE!

Forget Blackberry’s and Ipod’s: the futures next innovative gadgets come in a strapless size 4! Cutting edge fashion of the future requires designers to explore new and different ways of producing and showcasing their work. Many designers are now merging fashion and technology and future brands of haute couture will probably owe more to Cisco systems than Coco Chanel!

Fashion always seeks new ways of presenting innovations in fabric technology both revolutionary and ecological in style and appearance. Technology has been incorporated into clothing in a limited way, but more recently companies are now beginning to investigate ‘wearable technology’ like the Japanese company Kuchofuku, who make jackets and shirts with built-in fans and cooling systems. Their marketability seems all the more real right now as we enter a new decade where people are striving to find the next ‘new’ thing. There are several exciting advances in the production of future fabrics and one is the use of recycled PET (polyethylene terepthalate) made from recycled plastic bottles. Yukie Nakano, a PHD student from Northumbria University is working to identify the barriers affecting the wider introduction of recycled textile products. She is working with recycled plastic to produce new types of visually enhanced fabrics – mainly knitting yarns – to evaluate the potential market for their use as textiles. It is not the first time plastic has been used in clothing, 1960’s designer Paco Rabanne challenged pre conceived ideas about the use of it as material in which to experiment with clothing of the time. The enfant terrible of his generation, he used a series of unconventional materials, such as paper, metal and plastic to create his outlandish and flamboyant designs. Of course all of these can be manufactured from recycling everyday products that we so knowingly discard as a nation without thought and hesitation.

Sustainable fabrics are very much ‘in’ and there is an increasing rise in the use of by-products of the food industry as staple fabrics for the current ready to wear collections. Salmon skin and the use of bamboo as a fibre are namely two that are fast becoming a reality. So will this new decade bring something fresh and groundbreaking in fashion? Yes. It will because it has to. FASHION IS THE FUTURE! Take for example the ‘Spray on dress’ which comes in a can and can be sprayed directly onto the skin and moulded into whatever shapes the wearer requires.  

The noughties gave rise to many numerous avant-garde ways of seeing and one particular designer who encompasses the notion of fashion for the future is Hussein Chalayan.  His collections are an articulation of his immediate and philosophical ideas. The ‘Airplane’dress shown in his 2000 spring/summer collection was operated with a remote control by the model on the catwalk. Unconventional as it seems, he presents his collections as ideas and he is however, a designer of clothes that are to be worn. His high-concept pieces are often accompanied by finely cut, deceptively simple wearable pieces. He is a designer of the future yet he is often informed by the past.

Looking back over time can be said of much of the noughties fashion and style. In the latter part of the decade we have seen the sleeve and shoulder line become a focus of interest on many garments. Balmain, Margiela and Nicholas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga have all toyed with the shoulder over the past few seasons and no doubt will continue to do so in the future. Many people refer to it as an 80’s trend forgetting that sleeve and shoulder shapes were very much a staple of late 19th century clothing. Which raises my final point, that being that whatever happens with the future of fashion one thing for certain is that we will always be informed and inspired by what has happened in the past. 


View Select Magazine online. Click here.

Matt. x

Tuesday 2 March 2010

Lola Loves Boutique @ Cavern Walks. S/S10 first look.

This is Lola Loves 3rd season at Cavern Walks, the shopping centre she shares with Cricket, Vivienne Westwood and Boudoir Boutique, amongst others. Its also the 3rd Collection in a row I've shot with her.

Check out the links to the other collections here....

A/W 09- This collection was full on glamour, with a modern take on hard edged 80's styles . Its a massive contrast to the fresh, camp and girly S/S 10 collection. 

S/S 09- with this collection we saw a toned down and very chic look. 

This season as you can see Lola Loves has returned to the flamboyant frills that made her name in the first place. Its over the top and Scouse through and through. 

Lola Loves runs a made to measure service so if there is anything you like from any of the collections then just pop in to her shop for a consultation.
  

S/S 10 

Click to enlarge images..






Art Direction- Debbi Bogg. (Lola Loves)
Photography- Matt Ford.
Hair (well wig) and Make-up- Hannah Ellen.



Matt. x

P.S. I would Like to congratulate our model Helen. This was her first modelling assignment and 2 days after she won Rockin' Miss Asia. (Southport.) So she's probably having the best week of her Life! Well done! 


Monday 1 March 2010

Book your make-up appointment with Hannah Ellen, Now at Kirsty Doyles Boutique L1.

I think most of the make-up work on firecracker has been done by Hannah Ellen, so you should know her fabulous work by now. Apart from her fashion work with me and other photographers she also works freelance doing everything from house calls for special nights out to fashion shows and celebrities.


She has just set up her facebook page telling all about her recent partnership with Liverpool Fashion designer Kirsty Doyle. You can now book your private appointment in Kirsty's new store located at 20 Mansteys Lane L1. Thats right in-between Habitat, Waterstones and Urban outfitters.)

The store is open til 8pm so its perfect for getting ready before a night out.

Here's a small selection of some of my personal favourite bits of work that Hannah has done with me.




Click here for the info and how to book. Hannah@Kirsty Doyle's Boutique-(facebook page.)

Blankstones Opticians new glasses collections.


(Words Nicola Ubiquity Pr. Photos Matt Ford) GUESTS CELEBRATE FASHION WEEK AT BLANKSTONE OPTICIANS

More than 40 guests from around the city headed to Blankstone Opticians in Derby Square last night for a very special fashion showcase.
As celebrities and dedicated followers of fashion head to the likes of London, New York, Milan and Paris, Mark Blankstone and his team showcased a selection of key summer pieces from designer collections including Chanel, Prada and Ray-Ban.
Guests and valued customers were treated to glasses of pink champagne while enjoying delicious canapés from Tithebarn Street gastropub The James Monro.

CHANEL CH5168 MIRROR COLLECTION £248
CHANEL CH5179 £230


PRADA NEW BUTTERFLY SUNGLASSES £190


PRADA OVERSIZED STUDDED SUNGLASSES £250




RAY-BAN WAYFARERS £120


RAY-BAN AVIATORS £120