1728 Wedding House Campaign

London , England Trip August 2011

 

The trip to London was a fulfilling one. Winning the Kempinski European Flair Special Prize meant I could go to any of the hotelier’s branches and stay for a full 5 days fully sponsored. London was my chosen destination as it has so much history and culture and it did not disappoint. The Architecture there was splendid beyond words. The temperature was about 15 Degrees Celsius and for a Singaporean, it was at a comfortable level that allows one to travel without sweating and fatigue and this was in Summer. The first day upon touchdown itself was tiring but welcoming ….. the staff at Stafford Hotel were obliging and helpful. Our room has a traditional Victorian style to it that has a very cottage or horse carriage feel to it. One cannot help falling in love with it. Situated just next to Green Park Station which features a park with a luscious green field where the locals chill out in on brightly striped beach chairs. We also visited Mexican restaurants and a boutique restaurant which has a ballet theme….. arghh, how I missed their steak.

Me and my fashion stylist Rachel were welcomed by multiple rainbows around the city while looking for a Chinese restuarant in Chinatown. It was raining a little but not heavy enough to be a hindrance ….. there are lots of small shops around the famed Picadilly Circus Area that will surprise you with quality souvenirs like dolls and shirts and even ornamental guitars.

We were also doing photo shoots for 3 days with Monika Godlewska, Olivia Janin and our fabulous MUA Silvia Ribera. We had a great time shooting within the hotel with great hospitality shown by Carsten Schubert and Ursula Vonplaten. We also shot at the beautiful Hampstead Heath.

We also paid a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum which I will feature in the next post. Now here is a place which one can spend the whole day….. the amount of art pieces and artifacts are so numerous and overwhelming that one can get lost in it.

We also visited Bond Street to visit the branded boutiques and their collections is just breath-taking. The Viviene Westwood shops were divided into 3 shops within walking distance of each other….. perhaps about 15 minutes walk apart. The Bridal and Couture branch at Davies Street has a unique charm with the wooden floor planks and thick carpets and a basement level where the staff goes to to check the stock. Feels so surreal ……. too bad I was budgeting so I can get souvenirs for my friends cos there are so many great designs here and all of which is cheaper than what we can get in Singapore.

Where ever you go in London, you see concert walls and performing art theatres …… wished I have had the time to catch a play or musical back than……. the London Underground subway trains are smaller but never as crowded as a MRT at any given time of the day. Traflgar Square was also an interesting place to be with the statues and fountains and a countdown clock to the Olympics running the background. There were also many performing artists and buskers around, all adding to a very carnival like feel to the place on a Sunday. It was crowded at times but always with room for personal space .

Definitely a place to recommend for those shopaholics out there but also for those who like Victorian Style Architecture and those looking to open up their minds and souls.

Gustavo Lins Collection @ Women’s Fashion Week Haute Couture Showcase 2011 Singapore

 

Gustavo Lins initially studied to be an architect in his native Brazil. He would be designing dwellings today if his professor hadn’t asked him to reconsider which materials he’d rather be working with – glass and steel or linen and silk?

Lins’ Fall/Winter collection of leather-piped wool shirts and jackets, paper-thin leather tunics, clean-lined drap de laine wool coats, and draped wool jersey dresses is his eighth. Roughly half of his 65-piece collection is destined for men, an “efficient” and “systematic” wardrobe of coat/jacket/shirt/knitwear/trousers like a uniform that he designs with himself and his needs in mind. Lins’ womenswear shares a similar slim, straight-shouldered silhouette but also has an almost medieval allure this season. “The collection is a blend of armure souple and drapé,” Lins says.

Fashioned from the most exclusive fabrics – cashmere, silk jersey, cool wool, wool crepe and softest lambskin – Gustavo Lins’ clothes are quietly luxurious. As a fledgling designer, he apprenticed with John Galliano, Lecoanet Hemant and Jean-Paul Gaultier Couture, and worked alongside a woman who used to be Cristobal Balenciaga’s chef d’atélier. These were experiences that taught Lins the rigors of cut, the importance of fit, and instilled in him a love of fine fabrics. In the early years of his label, he moonlighted as a modéliste for other big name brands, and his preoccupation with taking the two-dimensional design of a garment and making it a three-dimensional reality still informs his work. Lins is obsessed with the way clothes hang on a body, and fits all his pieces on a mannequin. His garments, many of them reversible and as beautiful on the inside as on the outside, are displayed on three-dimensional torsos, “so that people can see the garment’s inside as well as its outside.”

The men and women who wear Lins’ clothes are a select bande d’initiés . They recognize each other by the topstitching that articulates the “joints” of their jackets and trousers; the slim leather piping finishing the edges of a jacket lapel or detailing the drape of a dress collar. Another giveaway would be the Gustavo Lins label, but you’d have to really look for it. His name is there, certes, but completely hidden, under an architect’s triangle of smooth leather stitched at the back of the neck.

Gustavo Lins Collection can be viewed at his website @ http://www.gustavolins.com