It’s not exactly news that trainers are having a renaissance of sorts in the fashion world, so it seems fitting that a Parisienne artist has made them the central theme in his work. Christophe Guinet, aka Mr Plant, has turned Nike’s moto Just Do It into Just Grow It, and created a series of living plant sculptures that feature mid-top dunks adorned with flowers, grass and bark.

To see more, head to Mr Plant’s website epiphytegarden.com

If this floral arrangement takes your fancy, Nike have recently launched a more wearable collection with Liberty. Available to buy from liberty.co.uk

Tags: liberty, Mr Plant, Nike

EDIT started off as a contemporary consept store in Hong Kong. However, inspired by their clientele, the founders decided to start a ready-to-wear brand to match their style and fashion perspective, launching just in time for Pre SS15. With an eclectic mix of feminine and street-wear, EDIT’s first collection is full of wardrobe staples, day-to-night go betweens and bold statement pieces, all in reasonable price-points (everything retails at under £250), giving us the perfect addition to any modern girl’s wardrobe.

Having impressed the womenswear buyers at Liberty, you will find the tomboy cool meets high-end feminine label in the British store come October. We can wait.

edit-thebrand.com

Tags: EDIT, liberty, Liberty's, SS15

Darkroom, is a very modern boutique. Placed on Lambs Conduit Street it’s monochrome interior expertly filled with the most eclectic and almost unreachable accessories for man, woman and home.

Founded by duo Rhonda Drakeford and Lulu Roper-Caldbeck the unique store holds rare pieces largely inspired by Africa that push boundaries between art and design.

Twin spoke to Rhonda, who explained the mysterious, yet hellishly exciting concept that brings majestic product, fit for a museum, to our homes…

Can you describe Darkroom in three words?
Bold, Crafted, Design… arrgh, that”s a hard question!

How do you go about seeking new brands/designs and keeping the store’s content so original?
We tend to steer clear of known designer brands, unless there”s something in the accessories part of a collection that really stands out, and isn”t already well represented in London — We prefer to source more off the beaten track, so we literally scour the world, [and its tradeshows!], mixing London finds by graduates and lesser known designers with pieces sourced anywhere from Africa to Australia, Brazil to Belgium…

A lot of product in the store is African-influenced, why is this?
I”ve been collecting African fabrics for many years, and before we started Darkroom, I developed a signature range of cushions made from my archives of wax print fabrics that I wholesaled to places like Liberty etc. This was something that was also brought into the Darkroom aesthetic when we were developing that, and has proved really successful here, which is great.

We really like the way the vibrancy of the textiles and colour palettes found in Africa work so well alongside contemporary Western design. The contrast really creates a dialogue between all the products we present.

Can you tell us about any particularly interesting products you stock?
We love to present pieces that use an unexpected process or material — one of the best examples is the series of poufs by Dutch designer Chrstien Meindertsma. She uses jumbo thick felted wool, and hand knits them with needles the size of broomsticks!

What’s your favourite piece?
I”ve just ordered one of these amazing bags by Nigerian-born designer Buki Akib.

Tell us about your own design aesthetic and   White Coat’s Call Room 4 Unique Chief Complaints Buy buy сialis online on November 30, 2013 Buy buy сialis online USPS Fast Delivery. process.
Before Darkroom, I worked as a graphic designer, and this graphic approach is definitely the way I work here too — I respond to boldness and bravery in design, but also really enjoy simple items made really well. When designing products here, I”ll always look outside of the industry of “retail” for a starting point, I see little point in responding to trends.

My own design aesthetic is very much what you see at Darkroom, I pretty much live it — my home is very similar. I”m currently close to buying a new place, and am looking forward to hand painting tribal-esque motifs and shapes on all the walls. I like design to be visually challenging and unexpected, but also to be realistic — I hate homes that look like show homes, or when people dress top-to-toe catwalk.

What events have you recently had or are coming up at Darkroom?
We just had a party to celebrate the window installation that launched Buki Akib”s bags [see above], and we are now working towards our Pagan themed season that launches on 21 June — Summer Solstice.

Do you support or stock graduates?
Yes we do — although it wasn”t one of the original theories behind the word “Darkroom”, we like how it has the connotations of developing new talent. The nature of what we do, in selling one-off and hand-made pieces, works really well for graduate designers.

Would you ever branch out to apparel?
At the moment, no — we really enjoy the creativity that is inspired by selling accessories only. The way we mix interior and fashion accessories allows for so much scope and means we have a unique voice that we can build on in many ways. Ultimately though, our shop size limits us to how much we can present. There”s no doubt that we”d love a bigger space, and who knows what that would bring!

What’s next for Darkroom?
There”s the Pagan launch, which is a really exciting mix of specially commissioned pieces by several jewellers including Michelle Lowe-Holder, CCCHU and Na”ama Rietti, alongside some new Darkroom pieces and a selection of beautiful items sourced from New York and Madagascar.

We are also working on our inaugural Darkroom knitwear collection which will launch during the London Design Festival in September — we”re working with the amazing designer and set-builder Camille Walala on a major window installation for that, which is extremely exciting.

darkroomlondon.com

Tags: Darkroom, Lamb's Conduit Street, liberty, Lulu Roper-Caldbeck, Rhonda Drakeford

Harry and Polly met on the first day of their lives in a West London Hospital in 1985. The start of a friendship that’s spanned their lives so far and has forged a remarkable creative bond.

Together from their East London studio they are the thinkers and makers behind Draw In Light, a fashion label that takes inspiration from nature to create free-spirited, understated and highly covetable garments.

Twin spoke to the duo about their S/S 13 collection…

What are the inspirations behind the new collection?
P > The inspiration for the new collection may sound cliché but it was all taken from the V&A along with your very own Celestine Cooney. We photographed the marble walls of the museum and spent a long time looking at the wrought iron work.

H > The inspiration behind Draw In Light collections normally comes from a combination of natural elements, scientific concepts, spiritual philosophies and the process of free-hand silk-screen printing to blend everything together.

Why the name Draw In Light?
P&H > Draw In Light – We work with light as an element to expose our drawings onto screen. The word Draw is meant in both senses. We believe in the divine and we channel it through our work.

How do you work together? What’s the process?
P > The process is quite natural; time is spent together doing some research. We collect a mixture of photographs and drawings of things we’ve seen – Harry makes our artworks from the imagery. I tend to source the fabrics we use for each collection. The prints are then experimented with, colour and technique. The phrase “there are many ways to skin a cat” comes to mind. There are so many ways of putting things together, design is about refining ideas. We slim things down at the end and add a few last minute whims. This is again where Celestine’s magic comes in.

What do you listen to while you work?
P&H> Our taste in music is very eclectic. All time favorites – David Bowie, Kate Bush, The Smiths, and Radiohead. New kids we love – Houses, Grimes, Beach House, Le Loop podcasts and Nicholas Jarr.

Each of your pieces is unique – how important is that to Draw In Light’s DNA?
P&H > It’s as important as your DNA differing to anyone else’s. You’re not the same as anybody else and neither should you want to be.

What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
P > My little sister singing at my family home – Landslide by Stevie Nicks for my cousins wedding.
H > Temples in Guatamala, at the top of the tallest Mayan temple the jungle stretched out beneath me with smoke rising up from the trees and turrets stone temples.

What’s been the most exciting moment for Draw In Light so far?
P > The most exciting moments have been working with people you respect. Our Life Drawing presentation with Relative|Mo was brilliant.

H > The first order from Liberty, turning our idea of Draw In Light into realistic business. Also moving into our studio and creating a place to work from where we can design, print and produce our collections.

If you weren’t fashion designers, what would you be? 
P&H > We would run a bar. It would be called “Pam’Orama Bar” It would have a raised Perspex tank in the center with topless mermaids dancing. Harry and myself would be on the door and it would have a very strict policy. All of our musician friends would play at the bar and it would become quite cult.

What are you both wearing right now?
P > I’m wearing a pair of high wasted Capri pants, a little cropped white t, tough sandals and a little red lippy.
H > A white Draw In Light Logo T with denim dungaree shorts, white socks and pale pink DM’s

What’s next for the label?
P > Building on our foundation. The good thing about this business is the path ahead being clear. You naturally want to use your own aesthetic to design other things… I think eventually we would like to be a concept brand. We would love to do some collaboration’s in the future. Little Duffy is going to be making some Draw In Light pendants that will be beautiful, tiny molecular stars – like our logo!

drawinlight.co.uk

Tags: Drawn in Light, Harry, liberty, Polly

Spring is sprung. Continuing their collaboration with Liberty of London, Nike Sportswear have taken the luxury store’s iconic floral motifs and flowerbombed their classic running trainers. From the Cortez to the Air Max 1, the Make It Count collection is about making fashion work hard for you.

Twin has its eye on the Destroyer Baseball Jacket in particular. Make sure you check out the Nike pop-up space if you’re in London this April.

Shop the collection at liberty.co.uk

Tags: liberty, Make It Count, Nike

Admission: I used to hate gourmand fragrances. Not spicy ones but obvious scents that smelt of chocolate and caramel and vanilla. Oh and fruity florals were an absolute bugbear. Why? Well in all honesty I felt they were too obvious, too commercial, too lowest common denominator (yes it was a bit snobbish of me I admit). I felt they were predominantly marketed and aimed at young girls with unsophisticated tastes who wanted to smell good enough to eat. Who would want to smell like something edible? I did at the age of 18 – I used to wear the long defunct Body Shop Mango oil and also the Vanilla and Dewberry oil. With the vanilla I thought I smellled as good as bowl of fresh custard.

How naïve I was! The grown up me found gourmand scents totally unacceptable. But I’ve had something of a damascene conversion. I think this is because some of my favourite indie perfume brands have been making gourmands recently that are a little bit different. They are not your usual fruity florals or toffee caramel concoctions. Byredo’s Pulp does smell of exotic fruit, but it also smells of green leaves and stems and slightly sour but fresh foliage. So it’s a kind of interesting riff on the gourmand genre. Likewise Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille – yes, it smells of vanilla and cocoa beans and other delicious edibles but there’s also a tinge of smoke, a dirty gentleman’s clubby woodyness about it that lends it a sophistication and hauteur that a straight vanilla wouldn’t have. Lastly, Etat Libre d’Orange’s Like This, Tilda Swinton fragrance is equally off-key. It smells of carrots and gingerbread and almonds – not your obvious epicurean fragrance by a long chalk. So, thanks to the niche perfumers gourmand fragrances are changing. I love these new oddball gourmands, if only the blockbuster brands would pay heed.

Byredo’s Pulp is available at Liberty.co.uk

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: Bethan Cole, Byredo, Etat Libre D'Orange, liberty, Like This Tilda Swinton, perfume, Pulp, scent, Tobacco Vanille, Tom Ford