Created in Birmingham

Last Friday evening saw the launch party of Zellig‘s newest residents, LeKeux Events. The vintage, rockabilly inspired team put on an evening of treats, live music, dancing and discounted beauty services, transforming guests into glamorous vintage style pin ups.

With their new premises officially christened, they’ve announced a list of events, workshops and salon services taking place over the next few weeks, which include beginners hair tutorials, afternoon tea drop ins for mums and toddlers, 40′s dance classes and pin up photo shoots. Their in-store salon offers make-up, manicures and hair styling from a variety of inspiring eras.

Teaming up with the Boutique Baking Co. (very good cakes, I recommend) they’ll also be hosting tea parties and cake decorating classes, plus private hires for hen parties and such.

For a full list of what they’ve got to offer, take a look at their website and facebook page.

Photos from the launch are taken from their Facebook Page – I forgot to bring my camera to take my own.

Art at Artfull‘s latest exhibition, ‘The Cutting Edge of Fashion’, will showcase the work and designs of Rebecca Forster, a Wolverhampton based designer.

Rebecca’s work concentrates on her passion for everything Japanese, looking at the art of origami to create a collection which can be altered by the wearer and giving a structured appearance to all of her outfits. Her own placement prints, which have a graphical edge, adorn the outfits and seem to leap off of them, bringing us a taste and flavour of the Japan she visited a few years ago.

After the private view evening on 14 January, the exhibition will be open from 10am – 4pm daily until 29 January.

Artfull Expression is based in the Jewellery Quarter, at 23 Warstone Lane, Birmingham, B18 6JQ.

Still don’t have an outfit lined up for New Year? Don’t panic yet! A team of MA Fashion Media students at BIAD have been busy in the run up to Christmas and New Year, coming up with an all you need to know guide to party outfits for the festive season.

Collaborating with local models and photographers, stylists Elca Jeffers, Caroline Ropper and Laura Beany have put together a shoot featuring their key looks.

Here’s a few of their suggestions:

Sequins and Metallics are a firm favourite during Christmas and New Year…

For a hint of shine and sparkle this festive season pull out that little sequin skirt, jacket or the full on metallic dress, pair with thick black tights and chunky heels and a fur jacket, coat or shrug. If that’s too much for you accessorise a plain dress with some shiny jewellery even mix and match gold and silver for that metallic effect.

Faux Fur

Faux fur collars, shrugs jackets and coats are a stylish way to keep warm and feel luxurious; they can dress up a casual smart outfit or give you the full glamorous look on top of your perfect evening outfit.

Tailored for the Lady

Funk up your old work jacket by rolling up the sleeves and placing a broach on your collar, then throw it over your favourite party dress, and there you have the most classic look of the season and future seasons to come.

The Little Black Dress “LBD”

Make a statement with your LBD and add oversized jewellery or go for that sophisticated look with dainty diamante pieces or even try the gothic look and team with black jewels, lace tights and bright red lips.

Curvy Corsets

Corsets can be reworked each season and look great with a nice pair of jeans for that casual smart look or with a pencil or puffball skirt which can create a unique party dress effect.

Hunting for haberdashery is also on their radar, listing tassels, diamantes, thinestones, lace, studs, ribbons and sequins as things to look out for.

They also suggest raiding your mum and grandma’s wardrobe to dig out vintage accessories, building your own look from the 1920′s to 1980′s, “these days even the 90’s are classed as old school”.

Photographs shot by Miles Thomas and Ryan Wicks, featuring models Jas Kaur and Tatyana Advani.

Birmingham Settlement are holding a charity fashion show together with South Birmingham College, which is happening on 12 November at the Digbeth campus.

The show will feature reworked clothing by the fashion students, taken from Birmingham Settlement’s charity shops, along with around 80 designer outfits and including D&G, Moschino, Gucci and Jimmy Choo, all of which will be auctioned off at the end of the night. Entertainment will also be provided by performing arts students half way through the evening.

For more information on the event, along with updates on the student’s work, visit the Birmingham Settlement Facebook page.

Tickets are £10, and all proceeds will go to Birmingham Settlement which helps local people and communities to overcome social disadvantage.

Karen Kiely‘s been looking at Birmingham’s fashion blogging scene, which is something she’ll apparently be exploring as part of her Social Media as Culture module on her Masters. She’s picked out Style Birmingham, Uber Brum and The Doll on Fashion.

I thought I’d have a root around for a few others.

Rajmeena posts sketches, there are dribs and drabs on the Retail Birmingham blog, We Create have a blog that occasionally features ‘about young British fashion designers’ although not so much recently. LABB Magazine’s blog goes in for loads of pics. Fused cover fashion from time to time too.

Selina Jervis is from Birmingham but not around the city so much as far as I can tell. Her Flying Saucer blog has been popular for a while and it’s interesting to see they’ve recently snapped her up as a guest blogger on Browse Bullring.

Cheers to Jim for pointing me towards Vintage Reflection.

There must be more out there… (*hint*)

In case you haven’t heard, last week was London Fashion Week. And while some of us can only dream of attending the glamorous shows, the closest we can get to our fashion fantasies is through various blogs and Twitter updates.

Meanwhile, Birmingham designer Damian Marquez was invited to showcase his S/S11 collection as a part of LABB Magazine’s London Fashion Week showcase event, “Emerge” which took place on Monday at Hoxton Factory.

The collection is made up of playful tailoring, jersey wear and swimwear. Damian, who launched his design career at Costa Rica Fashion week in 2009, hopes that this new collection will follow in the footsteps of his A/W 2010 range which was quickly snapped up by stylists and magazines internationally

The collection was both designed and produced from Damian’s Harborne shop, while those beautifully airy shots from his S/S11 lookbook (above) are also the work of Birmingham photographer Garazi Gardener.

This fresh faced quarterly magazine has been put together by a small team who have created, produced and printed LABB magazine in Birmingham.

Aiming to harvest and showcase emerging talent in art, fashion and photography, LABB allows readers to explore something new as oppose to the same churned out work seen in fellow coffee table mags.

Fashion, it’s like a science, you always want to push the limits, find something new, but its always based on the existing. Not everyone who works in a lab wears a white jacket… WELCOME TO OUR LABB!

Issue 1, Volume 2 is currently available, with Volume 3 on the way for September. In the meantime they’ve also got a blog, LABB Loves, which is great if, like me, you like flicking through dozens of highly stylised fashion photography.

Eye Thief is the fashion label that Raj is in the process of launching. In the meantime she’s posting sketches and teasers at http://eyethief.blogspot.com/

I’d not heard of Swishing before – seems it’s a kind of fancy swap shop. HOX Boutique (who run a fairly new shop on Corporation Street) will be holding a Swishing event on Saturday 28 Nov at The Vaults in the Jewellery Quarter.

It’ll start at 2pm which is when ladies can go along and hand in their unwanted items. There’ll be free drinks, games and DJ-related fun. At 3.30pm HOX are putting on a fashion show and after that ladies can start shopping (gentlemen are welcome too, but entry’s not free for us – we have to pay a tenner to get in).

Here’s the HOX Boutique Fashion Show flyer:

Applications for entry to The Midlands Young Fashion Designer Awards 2009 is now open. It is a great opportunity for designers age 16 to 25 to showcase their individual style and creativity.

The awards aim to expose the wealth of creative talent in the Midlands through a competition for emerging fashion designers. The awards are a great opportunity for Midlands based designers to express their creativity, gain valuable experience and exposure whilst securing valuable experience in a competitive arena.

The 2009 awards will include a showcase of garments from fashion students, graduates and established designers from across the Midlands. The fashion showcase and awards will take place in Birmingham City centre during October 2009.

Deadline for entries: 31st March 2009.

Interested? Contact: info@myfashiondesigners.co.uk

Another fashion show here – Nu Century Arts will kick off Black History Month with a fundraiser for Breaking Chains With Knowledge, their expanding cultural education project.  It’ll be on 1 October at Stars Members Club in Erdington.

Evolution Fashion Show and After Party will be:

an innovative fashion experience with rule breaking new designers showcasing example garments from their portfolios. London designers such as GarBell, with unique Birmingham models will be present to showcase their designs. To enjoy the event in the spirit of Black History Month there will also be a movie corner showing black movies and clips.

More info on the Breaking Chains With Knowledge MySpace page.  It seems like the Nu Century Arts site is down at the mo.

Happening on Saturday 27 Sept at the Pavilion Banqueting Suite, Moor Lane, Birmingham, this is:

a fashion design competition for aspiring fashion designers from across the Midlands

More info at Midlands Young Fashion Designers Awards.

Some interesting fashion related stuff is establishing itself in Millennium Point right now with Matthew Boulton College‘s Feed Studio hosting the finals of the PIN competition. From the press release:

Matthew Boulton College celebrated the launch of their two brand new specialist design studios, ‘FEED Studio’ and ‘Fashion Lab’ situated at Millennium Point with a showcase of talent, and the opportunity for two new young designers to win £20k between them. The launch took place within the Millennium Point Hub on Thursday 21st February.

‘PIN’ is a groundbreaking collaboration between Matthew Boulton College and Midland Fashion Showcase. The aim is to profile the fashion talent of the West Midlands via a fashion competition. The final of the ‘PIN’ competition culminated on the night with 12 finalists going head-to-head on the runway, presenting their Spring/Summer 2008 collections. A panel of six judges from within the fashion industry chose the two winners from the two categories, Jenny Hardcastle from Solihull, Birmingham won the New Designer award and Shamrez Marawat from Moseley, Birmingham won the Young Business award. Each winner received £10k to develop their business.

Jenny Hardcastle believes she is more than a designer and a dressmaker…she is a sculptor of fabric. Jenny presented her collection Timeless at the event. Her feminine silhouettes evoke thoughts of Grecian romance and 1930′s elegance, which combine to create shapes that will last forever and become what can only be described as….Timeless. Jenny was overwhelmed stating ‘This means everything to me – it’s the start of a new life and a new career’. For more information about the collection visit www.timelessbyjenny.co.uk

Shamrez Marawat presented Balian, a menswear brand that utilises avant-garde sportswear tailoring techniques with subtle military influences. His collection was inspired by the philosophy of the ‘tension of opposites’ which in this case is war vs. nature and is displayed by using military cuts and muted colours. Shamrez was thrilled to have won, ‘I feel this whole ‘PIN’ journey has been incredible and a real catalyst to drive my business. I’m honoured to be a part of the creativity in the Midlands.’

BIAD has a new website and rather than just tell you that I thought it’d be nice to reproduce a few of the images from their gallery there.

Sonia Poli – BA Visual Communication

Helen Freeman – BA Fashion and Textiles

Francesca Prowse – BA Visual Communication

Hat tip to D’log

Blink Magazine have a new Fashion and Beauty blog.