A Celebration of Style, Not a Fashion Show

5:00pm and all the fashion style makers of Nottingham arrived at the East entrance of the Exchange Arcade, all excited to take part in the Celebration of Style. It was an event held be Notts Creative, aiming to bring together the style makers of Nottinghamshir to show diverse and eclectic cultural mix.
As the crowd gathered we saw a vast array of style. More interestingly, most of the people we spoke to took their creativity to another level by designing and making their own clothes. Find below our pictures of a handful of the style inspiration we discovered at the event...

All saints sales assistant Aleister Adamson, wears dark greys and muted checked shirt paired with a Dickie bow which he tells us is a 'must'. At 18 he plays the guitar in his spare time and says his style is similar to 'an old man crossed with a greb.'

Kareena Sims, 28, creates her look by using vintage 60's originals.

Despite being a model/actress, she has the skill of putting together an outfit for less than a tenner, we wish we could shop with Kareena!

Aja Ireland mixes textures and 80's proportions to create an original interesting style. At 22 Aja is primarily a singer but we found out she illustrates and screen prints unisex t-shirts of trees, mounted unicorn heads and transvestites. After checking out her blog, we thought the detail and the style of the t-shirts were a beautiful take on the ugly, and feel a feature of her t-shirts will be necessary to our blog.

In the meantime check out Aja's blog.

Sophie tells us her style is minimalist, we feel she goes beyond 'basic' to create an edgy look with her peroxide blonde hair and red lips. Sophie tells us she's a dancer and an artist, but collects fur and records like a magpie to silver. Her style is the definition of laid back cool.

The darlings, LJ and Lorne, not only have a exquisite name but follow that through to their style.

Lj at 27 designs jewellery and tells us her style 'changes like the wind'. The outfit shows an eclectic mix of of styles to create an look that's 'pure me!'.

Lorne only wears clothes that are pure fabulous and comfy, telling us he's cool because of his very being and friends.

We spotted Britain's best dressed man and runner up from Project catwalk, Ross Hancock . At only 34, Ross has furthered his skills to becoming the tailor and worked with many high end fashion houses. We discussed the excitement of starting a blog, as recently, Esquire had requested his fashion thoughts on the Internet for 'le ross le blog'.

However cool he might be (he tells us he has cashmere chest hair, we're not sure how true this is), Ross was down-to-earth and we hope we can collaborate with him further in the future.

The fur couple, Daisy Hainsworth (18) and Timmy Whitehouse (19) wear clothes with patterns of streaks of colours to create casual yet stylish looks.

We like the use of Daisy's textures which include a silk Vivienne Westwood coat with faux-fur head wear and plastic 'Melissa' Cinderella shoes. The t-shirt worn by Timmy is part of the artistic couples line 'Sur Magique', where they use paint to their advantage, creating quirky, colourful yet adaptable t-shirts. The clothes start from £20 and are sold in The Attic, Nottingham. A feature on the t-shirts will also be coming up soon as well as the relaunch of the attic.

James Bartlett, Matt Brown and Sam Minton revamp the three musketeers with a sleek timeless look. James uses a beautiful blue Paul Smith suit with modern twists (feathers, as seen above), Matt bases his look on indie with an element of fashion whilst Sam tells us that Decatur jackets are cool. James adds that he would leave his law career to pursue fashion. A message to James, we advise you do.

At only 17 Hollie Dorman juxtaposes colour and textures by using a Lipsy jacket against lacy jersey and adding a splash of magenta to her lips. Her style is unique as she tells us she selects from anything and everything, and Holly even wears glitter in her eyebrows!

This student use inspiration from the into the wild trend to create a adorable look with an edge.The hood is designed by Merri Making, check them out for custom made hoods and capes! We personally loved her newly bought Kurt Geiger heels with spikes around the toes creating killer look.

Fashion stylist, Eleanor Cording-Biooth wears a secondhand trench coat, plain french boots and a leather patchwork Mulberry bag to create a 70's style. She tells us she hasn't brushed her hair yet this year which we can't believe as it looks so effortlessly cool.

A local fashion designer creates unusual yet elegant tailored garments to create an unconventional look. Ruth Walkin and Becky Fractual act as her sidekick team of dressmakers and photographers. We loved the overlapping skirt which used a generous amount of material, very Autumn/Winter 2010.

Motohiro Tanji

Motohiro Tanji designs is a combination between techno, inspired by futuristic images, and gothic, with rusty and ragged deconstructed clothing. The designer graduated from Nottingham Trent University with an MA in Fashion Knitwear Design. He aims to combine these elements by using woven laser-cut textiles to produce an impressive distinct style.

As pictured above Motohiro Tanji aims to create volumous and dramatic garments.
The bow tie was created by a designer collaborating with Motohiro Tanji (picture above, far right) which shows a paper-thin fabric with intricately cut out shape which reminded us of a cut-out paper snow flake.

We had such a great time at this event, it really was a celebration of style, and a great way to kick start Creative October. We can't wait for the next installment!