Headonism Exhibition- London Fashion Week

One of my favourite events at London Fashion Week had to be the Headonism exhibition, a British Fashion Council initiative curated by Stephen Jones, which celebrates a new wave of emerging London milliners by showcasing pieces from their Spring/Summer 10 collection

So I decided to dedicate a post to some of the amazing work featured, starting with Mumbai born Shilpa Chavan, the creative force behind label Little Shilpa.

Having won many awards including the coveted Ffolio Trophy for the 'most creative and original collection', she started her career with scholarships for accessory design at The London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins.

Her work is among some of my favourite from the exhibition and I love her dynamic presentation of found objects and her innovative use of space. I would absolutely love to own one of her pieces.




Justin Smith of J Smith Esquire is both a milliner and a hairdresser, two professions that must compliment each other well.

Having graduated in 2007 from the RCAH, with a show featuring a black lace, burlesque corset as an orthopedic neck brace, his latest collection has a slightly more dishevelled feel, but is equally fantastic. The shapes he creates with found materials such as rope, shells, plywood and other amazing things that could have washed ashore wrapped in seaweed, bring a real sense of personality and character to his work.



Søren Bach also began his career as a hairstylist, something which is apparent in his unique style of working. He has worked commercially as a hairdresser for over 20 years, currently lives between London and Copenhagen.

After graduating from Royal College of Art in 2007 his work has featured in publications such as Dazed & Confused, POP, Numero, Russian Vogue and British Vogue and been worn by stars such as Björk, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones.




Noel Stewart first started designing hats after a college lighting project turned into a headpiece after he had nothing to wear for a wedding and it attracted so much positive interest he decided on a career change.

Ten years later and he has designed for Kylie Minogue, Beth Ditto and Britney Spears and frequently collaborates with other designers such as Roksanda Illincic, Hussein Chalayan, and Richard Nicoll for whom he memorably created Amish inspired gauze trilbys with square brims.

His pieces are often so architecturally flamboyant that they resemble sculptures, with high gloss resin stiffened organza and Perspex all featuring in his work.



Piers Atkinson moved to London in 1995 and has worked in numerous areas of the fashion industry ever since, even co-creating The Daily: London Fashion Week’s daily news bulletin.

His work as a milliner often tends to feature familiar objects with an unnerving spin. With freakshow clowns, kitsch oriental headdresses and Mickey Mouse ears lit by neon, or laser cut in Perspex to resemble a psychiatric Rorschach tests.

His latest collection‘Sex on the Brain’ combines cherries, lips and bananas with flesh coloured leather and studs, with a more affordable range coming to Topshop in the future!!!!

London Fashion Week

I know I haven't updated for a few days which is basically like a lifetime for me, but my excuse is I have just started two new jobs that are giving me no time to do anything apart from develop a financially crippling addiction to Boots meal deals and an even stronger dislike for the general public.

This first post is gonna be a bit of a weird one for Trendspiration, but I was recently invited by the super cool people at 1000Heads to attend London Fashion Week as a guest of Canon -who sponsored the event- and I thought I'd give you a bit of a post on what went down.


So after doing a little wee with excitement, I joined two other bloggers Elle of Oh-Elle and Zara from The Hideaway at Somerset house for a day full of amazing fashion and free food and booze.

Somerset House is GORGEOUS, we started with a three course meal at the restaurant which is a bit like a cross between a canteen and the poshest place I have ever been, with really friendly, constantly smiling and nodding staff. We had some wine and I developed some serious onion breath from the delicious food, while we got to grips with the impressive camera equipment leant to us for the week by Canon.


Then we headed into the event and after two more glasses of champagne I realised why everyone loves fashion so much -basically because they are all always pissed. I was on my fourth glass before I had even glimpsed any real fashion and I thought the day was going really well.

I was actually a bit gutted by the lack of people wearing mental shit. Everyone was playing it safe and most people seemed to be wearing the same uniform of super-high heels and Balmain-esque shoulders. There were lots of leather jackets about too (and one of them was mine) as well as lots of matte metallics and stud detailing.



The only person who stood out was this crazy bint wearing a full on union jack outfit and everyone wanted to take her picture. I am just glad someone actually made the effort and wore something remotely interesting.

It kind of got me thinking about the reputation of British fashion and our notoriety for innovation and eccentricity. One thing that did seem to reflect this was some of the incredible headpieces I spotted on the Saturday.


Designers like Fred Butler and Noel Stewart, for me really embody what British fashion should be about, creativity and pushing boundaries by using materials and colour in unexpected ways to create something spectacular.

In fact the whole event was full of their type of gorgeously eccentric and unusual embellishment, something that seems to be a key trend this season. Stud detailing was everywhere as was colour and clashing patterns, braiding, beading, folding, pleating anything you can think of all together at once. It seems that nothing was too 'OTT' for this years fashion week when it came to extra detail.


We were then taken backstage, to see the preparations for the Ashish show. I expected to see a lot more shouting and puking from the models, but it was all very professional. Things seemed to be going fine and no one was running around, throwing strops and firing people or anything. We watched the models doing their run through and the hair an make-up people and the press setting up.


Then it was time for the show itself, which was pretty amazing. I have to say, I was completely in love with his circus inspired pom pom extravaganza in February so I was slightly disappointed not to see a bit more spectacle.

But the tropical sequining and tourist-ey patterns and slogans really brought the collection together. My favourite outfit is the fourth picture down, I just loved the use of the spikes on everything and the 80's summer holiday vibe.

I had to steal these pictures from Zara's blog 'The Hideaway' as I had gotten so over excited with the mode on the camera that lets you take photos in really quick succession and makes a fast click-ey sound like you are a real photographer that I had run out of the huge memory on my card half way through the show. I do have lot of accidental stop-motion films when I scroll through these on the viewfinder though which is a plus!

Mario Testino, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Lily Donaldson & Stella Tennant 'Briliantly British' For Vogue UK October 2009

With the 25th Anniversary of London Fashion Week getting ever closer(!) British Vogue goes all patriotic for their October 2009 issue. The amazing Mario Testino captures an all-English cast of models including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Lily Donaldson and Stella Tennant for the editorial, 'Brilliantly British' which as well as taking us on a nostalgic tour of the punk and mod looks features some amazing couture and quintessentially British bowler hats and beefeaters.