Barcelona Street Style: Leeds in Barcelona

Dom from Dom, Dick, & Harry.
Fashion designer Ariadna & photographer JohnDave Beer and Rachel from Marketing LeedsGiuseppe from ICS and DomTwo students
Stacey from HebePhotographer from LelookTwo guestsJulia from Marketing LeedsA guestTeacher from IEDCarole Lelook's shoesGiuseppe's DJ's face glittersTeacher from IED and his boyI took these pictures at our recent Leeds in Barcelona event, during the panel discussion at IED. I love shooting people in a fashion school, everything was just so painless, the people are well dressed but effortless, and they welcome cameras, it made my work so easy! 

Graduate Fashion In Leeds, London & Antwerp

Leeds
Anna BrowningDaniela MarchettaShamin SultonAnna BrowningKate O'bryan TearKatrina Lee
Claire GreendaleFaith BunceSophie Broadhurst

A couple of weeks ago the Hebe team headed down to the Graduate Fashion Show by Leeds College of Art. We always love to see new talent emerging and and imagine how they might develop in the future.

Each student was required to showcase three pieces, a mini A/W collection. There were some refreshing elements in many of the students's designs, but for some of the students a lack of coherence was a problem, which is an important factor to think about when building a collection. Some students managed to get this coherence though. I particularly liked Rachael Broadhurst's creations, very feminine, and for my eyes, the most complete collection at the event. Crystal Padmore's way of connecting different materials was skilful. Lauren Crowe made a collection that's trendy right now, using plenty of fringe and leather. I noted down that I liked Sharon Banga's good fabric choices. I also liked Anna Browning's square jacket shape. Faith Bunce's hunting inspired works were very memorable and stood out.

Overall, I do think there's an issue of the students being too aware of what's trendy right now, instead of looking for something that's never seen before. If you can not let loose and do something 'out there' when you are at college, when can you, right?

London

University Of Salford catwalk show. Design by Nicola Bream. Earls Court, London

My good friend and partner on the UK Observing Diary, Chia Wen Liu went to the London Graduate Fashion Week. And this was one of her favorite outfits. She thinks this year's designers were of a good standard, but the event itself seemed to lack some of wow factor of previous years. Perhaps the change in sponsor (River Island to George) and/or a smaller budget had something to do with this?

Chia Wen filmed this video of best and awarded designers this year. An you can see a very noticeable character in the crowd.

Antwerp

And finally, let's take a look at the legendary Royal Academy Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp. You can read more about it at Vice Style. 

MANON KUNDIG (Photo courtesy of VICE) MANON KUNDIG (Photo courtesy of VICE)MINJU KIM (Photo courtesy of VICE)

Leeds in Barcelona: The Showcase

Last month we headed out to Barcelona for Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. Here we concentrate on the second part of the project - Leeds Taylor which was a showcase event of creative talent from both Leeds and Barcelona. (You can check out the first part of the project here: The Conference)

Leeds Taylor was held at the amazing Hotel ME in Barcelona. The idea behind the event from our point of view, was to showcase Leeds creative talent to massive audience of international opinion leaders and, more broadly speaking, further develop ties between the two cities. But rather then just go to Barcelona and try to 'sell' we wanted to create an experience that was more of a collaboration, something that was a one-off special project. To do this we teamed up with Marketing Leeds and our good friends LeLook and set about creating a platform where Leeds and Barcelona creatives could be seen together. For the fashion talent involved in the project this was in the form of a photo-shoot and catwalk show. 

Photoshoot at Hotel MECatwalk featuring Dom Dick & HarryA piece from the latest James Steward collectionDom Dick and Harry and Nicholas DeakinsJames Steward A/W

The soundtrack for the event was supplied first of all by Barcelona DJ and all round superstar DJ Mustache. Then followed a live performance from Leeds band ICS and they absolutely smashed it! Their performance included material from their new EP mixed up with some really cool covers including Nelly - Ride With Me, and Tinie Tempah - Pass Out. Then the showcase moved up to the 6th floor where the sounds of legendary Leeds club BacktoBasics and more specifically Dave Beer and Tristan Da Cunha kept the 1000 strong crowd entertained for hours more.

ICS left a lasting impression on the Catalan crowd

The showcase attracted more then 1000 people

The reaction to the event in Barcelona was amazing. Loads of people from the Barca creative scene now want to visit Leeds and hook up with designers, artists, bands and DJs here. The directors of the European Institute of Design want to travel here this summer and discuss ways we can collaborate further. Spanish national television will feature the project in a show later this month, introducing millions more to what we created and drive more interest and awareness of Leeds as an interesting international creative city.

Over the coming weeks we will report back on further fallout from the event including some of the next steps people are taking and we will post a copy of the spot on Spanish television. Discussions are taking place involving the talent featured in the project and we are sure that in the immediate and long term, some really cool things are going to emerge from this project.

Manchester Street Style: 03/06/11

The Hebe team were in Manchester last Friday for the launch of Hyper Island, even though we had a tight schedule, I still managed to get some shots of Manchester's street style... Actually we went for a tiny bit of sight seeing, a very nice meal at Papa G's in the Printworks, and started drinking at 3:30 in the afternoon... so the schedule was very tight ;)

I really like the variety of style in Manchester and next time I promise I will stop and do some interviews!

Leeds in Barcelona: Spotlight on Rowan Grant

One of the designers who will feature during the Leeds in Barcelona project is Rowan Grant and her jewellery brand Kitschen Sink. We checked in with Rowan to get a bit of her back-story and her take on the Leeds creative scene.

We are delighted to have Rowan involved in Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. She has added another dimension to what we are showcasing and gives something very different to the other brands involved: James Steward Couture, Dom, Dick and Harry and Nicholas Deakins. Somehow brands that start organically have so much more 'cool' then those manufactured by the system or for purely financial gain and Rowan is a great example of that: Working her way from 99p eBay auctions to being stocked in Selfridges!

This is the final video previewing the Leeds in Barcelona project and in the coming days we will begin reporting back on the project and share loads of pictures and videos! 

Note: Big "thank you" to Neil at Testspace for hooking us up :)