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A Fashion Writer

English school teachers always marked my essays the same way "grammar, poor", "subject, good" Their negative comment never deterred me, because from a very young age I'd figured out that the value was in the "subject matter". Of course my volition was never to be a writer. At that point in time I was too busy to even think about the future. But one day I had to grow up and make important decisions. So I decided on a career in business fashion and retail. And that's been my life's work developing business concepts, employing my creative imagination, "no grammar necessary" .Now in my most recent venture, an online shopping service selling men's fashion accessories. I find the most enjoyable thing is writing articles about the evolution of style and the progress of fashion through the ages.

One can always find good subject matter, grammar becomes secondary, and besides look at the effect American English (Microsoft Spell-check) has on the English language. What has happened to punctuation and capitalisation? Subject is the foundation of any article no matter the quality; it's what you believe in.

I've enjoyably, written hundreds of short articles, including critiques (product reviews). And as a result of many hours research have discovered some fascinating historic anecdotes that many people, even avid experts had no knowledge.

The original motivation was to increase back links to my newly formed transactional website and in turn achieve good page ranking with major search engines. This was part of an urgent strategy to avoid the ongoing high cost of cost per click. But I soon found my motivation changed and is now driven by enjoyment.

Writing allows me to exercise my creative imagination, use a little poetic license without fear of any retribution. I can write what I like and at the same time increase back-links to my site. And there's no teacher cold minded breathing hot air down my neck, intent on controlling and dominating

So now I've included some of my favourite fashion critiques amongst some fascinating historic anecdotes.

Here Are A Few Of My Favourite Historic Anecdotes: They tell so much about style as it happened without any thought of actually creating a fashion trend that would survive many decades.

1860

Bertie, the rakish Prince of Wales, ordered a short smoking jacket to wear at informal dinner parties at Sandringham from his friend, the tailor, Henry Poole. It was the first dinner jacket on record and was cut in midnight blue cloth. In 1886, a Mr James Potter of Tuxedo Park, New York, was a houseguest at Sandringham. He consequently ordered a similar dinner jacket to Bertie's from Henry Poole & Co. It was this dinner jacket that Mr Potter wore at the Tuxedo Park Club inspiring numerous copies that fellow members wore as informal uniform for stag dinners. Thus the Tuxedo was born at Henry Poole & Co. It took only eight years for an accidental style to cross the Atlantic Ocean and soon became an American institution. Its humble, royal beginnings were soon forgotten when labelled the Tuxedo.

1971

Maverick screen actress Katherine Hepburn, whose long-term lover Spencer Tracey was a customer of Huntsman, takes the extraordinary step of ordering bespoke denim jeans from her late lover's Savile Row tailor. Hepburn's commission foreshadows bespoke denim collections launched in 2006 by Timothy Everest and Evisu.

1880

The rowing club at Oxford Universities Exeter College invented the first school ties. After an emotional win over their rivals, they celebrated by removing their ribbon hat bands from their boater hats and tying them, four in hand around their necks. When they ordered a set of ties, with the colours from their hatbands, they had accidentally created the modern school tie. Schools, clubs, and athletic ties appeared in abundance. Some schools had different ties for various grades, levels of achievement, and for graduates. Thanks to historians and their method of accurate documentation all the original college colours are still available from archived samples and replicate ties can be made to order.

Here Are a few of my favourite self indulgent critiques

This is where I exercise my creative imagination and poetic license no matter how naïve they may seem.

One

Men's wallets have recently been elevated to fashion accessories status, originally created to perform a specific function, to carry paper money; we've just given it a much needed face lift. Functionality not lost, designers like Paul Smith, Simon Carter, and Richard James have brought wallets out of the dark and into the light. Vivid colours embossed on their covers and linings with depictions of comic cartoon strips started appearing, even bikini clad women and mini minors. Richard James a Savile Row tailor uses vibrant pinks, purples and burgundy on the inside flaps to create individuality for his brand. Top stitching is also widely used to create some interest.  Then Simon Carter came up with a real winner, the Jeans wallet, made from ultra fine, tender calf hide, it's slim and thin with just enough compartments for cards and cash. It slips nicely into the back pocket of event the tightest jeans with ease and it feels so good in the hand.

Two

A new range of enamel cufflinks by Ian Flaherty have quietly arrived on the market. They're beautifully formed from English Pewter, giving life to lifeless forms. There is a horse and rider in breathless pursuit of the unfortunate Fox, the Mallard and Partridge, Pheasant, and Trout, all brought to still life by the artistic prowess of Ian Flaherty. You can surf the net and trod the high streets, but you'll be hard pressed to find anything that compares with Ian's latest work.

Three

Here is a brand that's on the up; she's made all the right moves and a name befitting a jeweller, or exotic dancer. Babette Wasserman, a lover of the Swarovski Crystal, she displays it maximisation style and sets her place as a cufflink designer amongst men. Women bring a refreshing slant to men's accessories, a little femininity firmed to cuff, a constant reminder of soft and inviting contours and sweet scented women. Like the cufflinks, like the woman.

Four

One prime example is Timothy Everest, a long time emerging Savile Row tailor. His designer silk ties (Spitalfields Flower) impress upon you the conservatism expected of Savile Row, but with a unique originality, affordable luxury best describes Timothy's ties, made in England with the Savile Row stamp of approval.

To conclude: In essence my strength in literature (subject) over powered my weakness (grammar) "It's not how you write its why" subject is the foundation.

If you've enjoyed any part of this article or learned something then I'd really like to hear from you.

About the Author

Welcome to the home of finely crafted designer ties and cufflinks handmade from fine Italian and English silks.

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Rock And Roll Music Fashion

Glimpsing a pair of blue crystal cufflinks triggered memory, going back to 1969 and a hit song by Tommy James and the Shondells titled "Crystal Blue Persuasion". Tommy James and The Shondells were also one of the first acts to experiment with Music Videos of their hits starting with "Mony Mony" in 1968, thirteen years before MTV.

Some may argue the side of Michael Nesmith, one of the Monkees who is also credited for conceiving the idea for MTV. He was the first to win an Emmy award for a music video "Rio". According to history Michael got the idea while touring Australia. En route, driven by curiosity, he visited an outback town, the back of beyond, the whoop whoops, beyond the black stump, down under. And while in a pub with no beer, an unlikely character recognised him as the Monkee with the woollen hat.

This made Mike realise the power of media and thus began the idea of music videos. He made Elephant parts, and experiment, now con-cult, which later inspired the "Friday Night Live" TV series, the birth place of comedians like Chevy Chase, John Candy, Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd. An aside, Michael's mother invented Tipex and sold the rights while electronic typewriters were still hot for $50,000,000.

I recognise the man for his multi talents, no doubt, but equally for his unusual collection of designer silk ties. Not just the for choice of styles but the way he wore them at a length about 4 to 5 inches above the belt line, like they did in the thirties. He can be seen consciously displaying his collection during many appearances on the Monkees TV series, his music videos and PR photo shoots.  One in particular caught my attention; it was what appeared to be a Texas landscape, with characteristic cactus etc.

TJ and company began writing and producing their own records. Their first project, released in early 1969, was the unforgettable CRIMSON AND CLOVER album which, in addition to going multi-platinum, spawned three more monster hits for the group: DO SOMETHING TO ME, CRIMSON AND CLOVER, and CRYSTAL BLUE PERSUASION.

Listen carefully to TJ music; this was techno pop in its infancy, 10 years ahead of its time. The CELLOPHANE SYMPHONY album featured the newly developed Moog Synthesizer, a prelude to the VC3 and eventually computerised keyboards.

Also in the 60's cufflinks peaked. Swank were making 12 million pairs a year. Even though these were aimed at the lowest end of the market, retailing for an average of $2.50 a pair, that still adds up to a lot of men wearing cufflinks. These days the figure is closer to 200,000, but cufflinks are making a strong comeback with gross sales having increased consistently over the last ten years

MTV was born and traditionally hosted pop music shows like Countdown and Top of The Pops died a rapid painful death.

Music lovers, do you remember "The Alan Parsons Project"? Well Alan Parsons made is debut as second engineer along side Beatles producer George Martin in January while recording "Get Back" and Paul McCartney actually played base and some drums with The Steve Miller Band.

The same year (1969) George Harrison left the Beatles, and I left school aged just fifteen years and one day. I bought my first Jaeger sport Jacket and have been a fan of theirs ever since, a year later I discovered Harris Tweed and so began a life of indulgence in the art of fashion, now experiencing the joys of reward selling fashion accessories on line, I've rubbed shoulders with Timothy Everest and hope to do the same in person with Vivienne Westwood. Eventuality; "six degrees of separation" I believe it.

I'm still a big fan of Jaeger, there is no tweed as fine as Harris and I'm continually impressed with Westwood's endurance and her ability to subvert from with in.

It's all about collaboration, after all what would Bob Dylan be without his associations with The Band, Bob Knoffler, The Heart Breakers, Mick Taylor and Rick Bloomfield. He employed them to produce the music styles he visualised.

About the Author

Welcome to the home of finely crafted designer ties and cufflinks handmade from fine Italian and English silks.