London Fashion Week

The Established Man have been dipping in and out of shows all weekend what with the fashion circus fresh in town from New York. We popped into the Topshop Unique show yesterday for their crazy print, sparkly seventies-fest in the old Eurostar Terminal and then popped back to the tents at Somerset House for John Rocha's elegant paired down aesthetic. We were big fans of Charles Anastase's show, held at the Old Sorting Office. This talented Frenchman gave the ladies a dream wardrobe for next summer along with some shoes that would dwarf many a tower block. We've just got back from Michael van der Ham's conceptual show, a flurry of bold colours and contrasting materials, think futuristic with a clean elegance.

French fancies

Summer holidays have definitely come to a right royal end but we're still enjoying the plethora of goodies that our jetset friends are bringing back with them. Of particular note are these rather charming mini-carambars from France. Perfect for those of us who struggle with the full size versions of this bon bon and fear the onslaught of dentures as a result immediatement

New season in New York

The winter wardrobe is out in force here in London town but for our fashionable friends in New York a warmer front is lingering. Whilst the women's wear shows are in full swing with plentiful partying to match, got to love the Alexander Wang party in a parking lot this season after last season's petrol station fiesta. But it's not just the preserve of ladies this week, there's a generous dollop of menswear to be had.

We were loving the whites, pale blues and overall summer nonchalance of Phillip Lim's collection. Tim Hamilton carried on with his classics, simple yet sporty and an emerging trend seems to be cut off sleeves so all down the gym gentleman... pronto! We loved Steven Alan's deck party, all the more if you rock a lovely ocean-going-liner to complement those rolled-up trousers and overall holiday vibe. Rag & Bone was a loose-fit, pale grey, blue fest along with strong camels and ochres hinting towards a North African jaunt, we particularly liked the patchwork blazer...a summer staple surely?

It's a wrap

What with London Design Festival in full swing anytime soon we're rather looking forward to a visit to the Taschen Store in Chelsea and not just to peruse some fine art titles to line the shelf space that we don't have.

Rose Reeves, the London-based designer and overall connoisseur of good taste has accumulated quite a fine collection of the wrappers used to make buying an orange all the more special. With a heap of rather graphically stunning designs this will be one juicy show to see.

Wrappers Delight
23rd Sept to 6th Oct
Daily 10am-6pm / Wed & Sat 10am-7pm / Sunday 12-6pm

Taschen Store
12 Duke of York Square
London SW3 4LY

Fancy a cuppa?

We love a good flick through Apartamento Magazine here at The Established Man towers, it's one of our favorite reads so when news reached us that for London Design Week 2010 they were taking over a mews in our neck of the woods we got very excited. Even more so on learning it will be filled with coffee related wondefulness and some other truly fine goodies to be had. What a treat not to have to travel miles but only moments for some temporary treats.

FoodMarketo
Coffee & Friends
20-26th September / 10am - 7pm
8b Egerton Garden Mews
SW3 2EH

Lunchbox

Get past the rather long wait for a table and we are huge fans of Polpo on Beak Street, fantastic food, good value and a little bit of NY comes to London town. So we're rather looking forward to a soiree at Polpetto above the French House on Dean Street. With only 30-ish covers it would be rather nice to do a little private dinner there with one's nearest and dearest...

www.polpetto.co.uk

dreamy

So far the jaunts around town to splurge...a little that is, not vast sums...on some fine winter garbs have been unfruitful so we're thinking a fine scarf might by just what the Doctor ordered and at a rather lovely soiree we found it. Two savyy girls about town proclaimed their pre-order goodies from Christopher Kane had arrived including two very soft, very marvellous cashmere scarves. It might just be the only way to get through a British winter without a flight to the Southern Hemisphere.

What a tart

September is in full swing and the bramble bushes are oozing juicy blackberries...this calls for a tart extraordinaire!

How very true

Love it...

Hubba Hubba

Oh look what just arrived in our inbox. We are lusting over a Mulberry Henry...yes please Mrs. Mulberry. Perfect for a weekend jaunt, post gym hometime or just a nifty bit of bag action of the male variety. Yum yum

Northern lights

Winter coat watch here at The Established Man HQ has been rather unfruitful so far, that is until we remember long-standing American classic outfitters Pendleton. Get past the Elvis look-a-like and this is one fine jacket for the colder months approaching and will certainly light up the darkest of days.

Space games

Fashion might well have gone all lunar this season so what better for a Sunday afternoon than a jolly good game of Blast Off.

Out of this world

The lunar world is having a moment so we're rather tempted to add a Christopher Kane space tee to our Autumn Winter shopping list..shame we missed the pre-order day..that'll teach us!

Drool

We've got Wednesday cravings....for Paris and Rice Pudding...not at the same time but in equal amounts....and the latter with a large dollop of fine jam from Fortnum & Mason.

Where the wild things go to play

We love a good bank holiday. Whilst most of this country flee our shores...bye bye thank you very much...we like to hang around. It's a nirvana, nobody is around, you can park, eat, play and not wait for anything; that is until you arrive in Reading, that less than glamorous town just west of Heathrow. We popped along for the Festival, duly popping back to our own bed each night, and despite a little precipitation it wasn't anything a fine pair of Hunters and a battered old Barbour couldn't handle.

Our favorite bands of the three day teenage mud-fest are numerous but particular nods go to Two Door Cinema Club for an amazing set in the big tent and with a mid afternoon crowd bigger than we've ever seen at a festival. Blood Red Shoe's rocked out superbly. Kele, oh he of Bloc Party fame was a star, shame it wasn't dark and at a grimy venue..even better. The Drums with their Brooklyn hipster rock were spot on and had us want to go surfing all night long. Dizzee, was, well just Dizzee, what more do you need! The Libertines took us back a few year and were still on fine form. Arcade Fire headlined on the Saturday and showed us what true professionals were after a shambolic Gun's & Rose's disaster the night before...like a car crash it was so bad. LCD Soundsystem showered us with electro, dance mash fabulousness. Delphic kept this going and had a massive tent of underagers going for it at 4pm on a Friday afternoon..nice and Foals showed they still had it in them. Not bad for a weekend's work.

After all these musical forays thank god for a backstage cup of tea, a lovely loose green variety that came as a surprise and a brownie the size of our faces. We also bumped into the charming Alistair Guy, fashion photographer and charming man about town filming for the Channel 5 show 'Push'.

Temperate limbo

The bank holiday is over, the children of those poor souls that have them are back at school, the traffic is getting worse and with it the temperature too. We are freezing, to the near point where stray fingers approach the boiler here at Established Man towers in a bid to turn the central heating on. Blankets are being prepared, shawls from the hills of Darjeeling readied and coats being sourced and dry-cleaned. We thought an Indian summer would prevail, how wrong we were! There's two words on our minds and its 'the Caribbean'.

So its time for autumnal layering in a grand way. Light knits, silk mix cashmere's, cotton-cashmeres, cardigans in light wool along with battered old military jackets or mac's seems to be the way forward. There have also been some evenings where nothing but a nice bit of padded Moncler feather-down could be better or a winter coat from Rag & Bone...anything to stay warm!