Mark Fast has been one of my favorite newer designers for the past couple of seasons. Having just graduated Central Saint Martins in 2008, the Canadian-born knitwear designer has been a rising star in London. Unbeknownstly but cleverly so, he stirred up a bit of controversy when he decided to use plus-sized models in his S/S 2010 runway show.

I was further impressed by him when he declined to lend clothes to Lady Gaga, his soft-spoken voice stating:

“My work is about a lifestyle. It’s not fast-food fashion. It’s not about trends, it’s about classic, it’s about the body, it’s about beauty. Maybe that gets lost in the picture with certain celebrities.”

With no disrespect to the Fame Monster, his clothes truly deserve to shine for themselves.

For more info, visit Mark Fast

Mark Fast’s new affordable line “Faster” is available at Curve

And joining in with the rest of my favorite London-based deisgners, he is the latest one to design his first ever Topshop collection, which comes out in April/May. Can’t wait!

-Sophie

“Fuss Free” Opening Reception!

Friday, March 5th, 6pm-10pm
Shadow’s Space @ 1248 N Front St (@ Thompson St., Girard stop on the Market Frankford Line)
Philadelphia, PA

“Fuss Free” is a traveling group show curated by Roy Miranda. It features Philly-based artists and returns to its motherland March 5th where it will be exhibited at Shadow’s Space through April 30th, 2010.

Participating Artists: Dave Delaney, Matthew Kucynski, Hawk Krall, Martha Rich, Thom Lessner, Christopher Luxton, Adam Wallacavage, Matthew Michalak, Jayson Musson, Joel Flood, Carrie Collin, Don Vincent Ortega, Ted Passon, Linda Smith

Get there via: Bolt bus (from 34th st)
www.boltbus.com

OR the chinatown bus
wwwchinatown-bus.com

There’s been more play with layering and weaving together of fabrics as opposed to the normal cut-and-sew for the past couple of seasons, as seen at Gucci and Herve Leger. Most prominent with the basket-weaving details for the Fall/Winter 2010 collections are present in ThreeAsFour and VPL, in which it takes on a delightfully strange and hairy twist…

It deeply brought to mind one of our favorites, Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir a.k.a. Shoplifter. The Icelandic artist and fashion designer is best known for her intricate and eerie hair sculptures (i.e. Bjork’s Medulla’s album cover).

For more info, check out:
threeASFOUR
VPL and
a.k.a. Shoplifter

Images via style.com & shoplifter.us

Images via style.com & elle.com

This cover is very aesthetically pleasing to me because:
a. I’m a sucker for LiLo drama
and b. I love religious references.

Will purchase.

Her show titled “The Heart of The Woods And What I Found There” took place at the Soho Grand February 15, 2010 where she presented her “mini-me’s.”

Visit Katie Gallagher online: katiegallagher.com

Well..he decided to share with the world. Check out a glimpse of the real life of one of the most inspiring people in my life…

Kareem Black/LIFE

RIP.

Bijules Vs. Ruvan celebrates jewelry genius and photographic elegance…Please come view the Bijules FW 2010 collection and its new additions with the support of EVA NY, BearFlag Wine, Pom Wonderful, and Akvinta Vodka… Take away images from Ruvan and Bijules!

Installation up for month of February at EVA NY!

OFFICIAL BIJULES AFTER PARTY

@ CHLOE 81, 81 Ludlow and Broome, 11pm - 4am
featuring Doyo (Stockholm) + Jacques Renault (Runaway, DFA)
Hosted by Jules Kim of Bijules + Katie Longmyer (Good Peoples)

Beirut designer brings prisoners’ handbags to

Paris catwalks

Lebanese fashion label Sarah’s Bags has had huge success employing female prisoners to sew and embroider accessories.

London, England (CNN) — In the prisons of Lebanon, women are turning their attention to fashion and stitching their way to a brighter future.

They’re part of a program run by Sarah’s Bags, a Beirut-based label that employs convicts and the recently-released to sew and embroider handbags by hand.

For the past ten years, the program has steadily grown, after catching the eye of the Lebanese elite early on, including the wife of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — still one of their best customers — and Queen Rania of Jordan.

Today Sarah Beydoun, the company’s founder, has plans to expand and has set her sights on European markets.

“We’re starting to exhibit in Paris. It’s part of becoming more international. We want to sell to more stores beyond the Middle East and the Gulf,” she told CNN.

Having already had a successful sales trip to Paris in 2009, Beydoun is planning to return in February, hoping to attract new stores. But unlike her clients at home, she says the European buyers don’t blink when they hear her bags were built behind bars.

“You feel that the fashion world doesn’t care where it comes from,” said Beydoun. “They just care about the end product … at least the buyers for the department stores.”

Beydoun said she won’t emphasize that fact at the upcoming Paris shows, but that her strategy remains “to target stores that can carry our story and not just our collection.”

And what a story it is.

Beydoun devised her business plan while working on a university thesis about women in prison.

Then with the help of House of Hope (”Dar al Amal”), a non-governmental organization that supports vocational training in Lebanon’s jails, Beydoun began sub-contracting handiwork to female inmates.

The women who work for Sarah’s Bags have been convicted for a range of crimes, from prostitution to drug dealing, even violent crime. Whatever the charge though, the opportunity to learn a skill and make some money has helped hundreds find hope of a fresh start.

“One of Beydoun’s proteges, who was convicted of murder — a crime of passion, told CNN that “learning to sew stopped me obsessing about my crime, it helped my situation.” She asked to remain anonymous as she does not wanted to be stigmatized for her crime.

Not all the women employed by Sarah’s Bags have worked out, however.

“There were those who didn’t meet deadlines, or would lie about when they finished their work, but we keep on those that are serious and those we can trust,” said Beydoun.

Several women have even become real partners, building their own teams.

“Slowly the girls started to come out of prison and they would come to my shop. I would offer them to work with me. Each girl would take her designs and go to her village and do her handiwork and teach a small group of women around her how to work,” said Beydoun.

Beydoun is now relying on these out-sourcing teams to help her ramp up production as Sarah’s Bags enters the Western market.

To make the leap, she’s tweaking her designs to make them more universal, which means less Arabic calligraphy and more conventional shapes.

However her wares fare abroad though, it looks like Sarah’s Bags will always have a devoted following of customers, and staff, back home.