his and hers

rayban wayfarer, topshop thick rimmed sunnies

Saturday mornings are a stealth affair.

in the details

le fees de bengale jacket, celine bag, topshop riding boots

one of my super guilty pleasures in France this time around was revisiting museums and picking up on works of art I never really knew how to appreciate. Visiting the Rodin museum with G was definitely one of the highlights of my six weeks back in the land of bready deliciousness. My appreciation for marble works grew exponentially and it was chilly enough to take out the new coat. I have a weakness for all things leather trim so it took a good few years of holding back on buying the right leather arm jacket. This one from le fees de bengale took half a day of metro tripping but once I put it on, it was meant to be. French tailoring is like an absolute drug to me, I just couldn't say no to a coat that fit perfectly in the shoulders and wasn't too long for my stubby little arms.

self service

source: scanned by Anya Stoliar

one of the major works I'm handing in as part of my masters this semester involved creating a magazine from scratch as a group project. I got really inspired by these self service covers featuring Daphne Groeneveld photographed by Alasdair McLellan. A hint of fashion, and a lot more attitude is what's really missing in overstyled covers. We did research into competitors magazines, and I was so surprised that even a lot of the more indie mags still forget how beautiful a well captured, simple image can be. Luckily enough we were given quite a bit of room to be creative and the simplicity of effective cover art led to a lot of the insider design concepts we ended up with in the final mag.

Marant x Marant

The countdown to Europe has begun
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from a place i'd rather be right now

source: french vogue

I need to be jetted here immediately.

LAB HOMME A/H '12 and 5 minutes with Chris Cheng

source: all photos by Anya Stoliar

Another great show from the team LAB. I fell in love with the pops of colour against beautiful streamlined silhouettes and vintage props. G and I attempted to eat Beach Haus's entire fruit platter and had a few sneaky conversations with the models backstage, one of whom taught us the awesome power of grapefruit juice on the human stomach. My new leather jacket came out to play after retiring my old true and trusted of the last 7 years.

I also got to steal Chris away for a few questions:

Anya: Can you share some background information on what inspired you design and how you started LAB?
Chris: It's very cliche, but LAB stemmed from my own need for quality minimalist inspired clothing. Minimal, thoughtful, comfort and Australian made.

A: How would you describe your design aesthetic and your inspirations?
C: Inspiration comes mainly from European silhouettes and Japanese styling.

A: Can you talk us through preparing for a fashion show?
C: Many months of research culminating to a narrative, a story. I'm old fashioned in the sense I'm a fan of intimate salon style presentations where you can hear the fabrics, see the clothes and models, how the fabrics move. We are all story tellers, this is my story and what i think is an interesting next step, that's all.

A: Do you have any advice for people trying to break into the fashion industry?
C: We each have our own path, so follow your heart. I don't believe in luck, but effort. The biggest difference between good and great is the intention and how much heart we put in. Merci beaucoup!

something fresh

source: the french house, alexandria

taking a small coffee break over the weekend and moving the blog over to a new domain. please update your links to thenoircollective.com or thenoircollective.blogspot.com, all bloglovin and google followers will be updated automatically. welcome to my new little side project everyone :)

Autumn Advance

Time to switch up neons and pastels for some more seasonal shades.
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