Highlights of 2011

Where has this year gone? In the way of blogging, 2011 has been a blur of shows, trips, presentations, studio visits and attempted style stalks. Now, we could not wave goodbye to 2011 without highlighting a few of our favourite posts from the year. Over the course of the last twelve months we have posted two hundred and something times and here are a selection that we are particularly proud of...

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2012 might not have been our most prolific in terms of style stalking but we served up some real treats. b magazine's very own Dal Chodha was one of favourites. We see the ever lovely Dal at various fashion shindigs and have always noted how well dressed he is. With this in mind we just could not resist style stalking him and thanks to the photography of Kasia Bobula we can. Here we follow the Central Saint Martins graduate as he lives and works in London as a writer, editor and consultant. No doubt his five day style diary will brighten up your week all over again...

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The fabric combinations in Braille's outerwear are always of particular note. Textural highlights in their recent AW11 collection, Our Damn Hands, include a waxed belted silk poncho, a textured wool pocket overcoat and a suede reversible corded bomber to name but a few. Shortly after speaking to the pair in a post that unveiled their look book, we could not resist an invitation to take a closer look at the designs. Here we explore their East London based studio and cop a feel of a few SS11 and AW11 season highlights.

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Everyone's obsessed with something and our Collections series highlight a few of our favourites. Here we explore Jason Dike's coat addiction. Now, Jason is a stylish chap who tends to avoid the limelight, preferring instead to focus on unearthing well crafted menswear labels from across the globe or featuring the latest product releases from our favourite brands for Selectism, Gentleman's Corner and Esquire. Whenever we see him around town, we never fail to admire his coat so we invited ourselves around to Casa de Menswear (Jason shares a flat with Daniel Jenkins) to rummage through his collection.

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Remarkably, this season was MAN’s thirteenth outing at London Fashion Week. Now, we should all know by now that the talent showcase is all about heralding what’s new in menswear but this lineup was one of the most exciting to date. For the SS12 roster, Martine Rose was joined by two newcomers, Matthew Miller and Shaun Samson. Both newbies are deservedly winning plaudits, competitions and buyers for their style and innovative garment techniques. In this post we focus on Shaun Samson's needle punch felting technique. Here we sit down with the design talent and chat through his design process before taking a closer look at his craft.

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Despite focusing most of my attention on tradeshow and showroom visits during my whistle-stop tour of Paris, I was fortunate enough to take my seat at one of the real highlight shows of the season so far, Woooyoungmi. Now, we have long admired how this label's garments are streamlined and enriched with details and styled finishes but for SS12 vibrant colour and print are added. This heady mix provided a most agreeable summer friendly cocktail. This blogger excitedly snapped away as the models paraded down the runway and captured just a selection of the them. Now, gorge on the detail all over again.

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Located in Yorkshire, traditional home of the English cloth mills, Abraham Moon is unique in being a fully vertical mill, with dyeing, blending, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing processes all taking place on one site. State of the art manufacturing allied to a highly skilled workforce enable a wide diversity of fabrics to be manufactured at competitive price levels – a prerequisite to success in today’s market place. The craftsmanship and well honed skills are essential to the product and it was a pleasure to be able to watch it all unfold in a space that has seen the same processes come together for over two centuries. It is little wonder why Joe Casely-Hayford partnered with them for his John Lewis range. As a self confessed factory pervert, you can only imagine how many photographs I took as I was guided through the nooks and crannies of this well oiled assembly line of craftsmanship. Here I managed to hone them down and used them to guide you through the main processes to turn fleece in to stunning fabric.

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The arrival of Anthem on Calvert Avenue has forced me to stretch out one more finger as I count the ever growing number of exciting menswear stores in the capital. Nestled nicely in to this area of East London and within a short walking distance from Present and the recently moved 3939, the store opened its doors at the end of August to widespread acclaim. Always preferring to let a store settle before making the first excited trip down, I finally visited the last week. Entering with high expectations, I left anything but disappointed. Occupying a space once home to a bookies, now, with its rug scattered concrete floor, bare brick walls and eclectic artworks not forgetting its mix of covetable design talent, it has been totally transformed in to a truly new independent store. The brainchild of Simon Spiteri, the award-winning fashion buyer credited with launching Liberty’s internationally renowned menswear department over seven years ago and his business partner Jeremy Baron. The shared vision for Anthem is one based firmly on handpicked quality from across the globe. As both were working behind the counter, it was an absolute pleasure to be talked through the store's offering by the men themselves.

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From the moment Commes des Garçons sprang to fame with its first presentation in Paris back in 1981, the world of fashion has never been the same. Comme des Garçons quickly became the preferred label of the avant-garde and the highly independent. Whenever I think of the label I'm reminded by a sentence penned by Cathy Horyn in her NY Times piece, Gang of Four. "Kawakubo has been making clothes for nearly 40 years, always under the label Comme des Garçons, which means ''like some boys'' and in a way suggests a gang." Over the last four decades, Kawakubo has amassed quite a gang of followers thanks to her radical approach to fashion design. Amongst them is One Nine Zero Six's very own Dean Webster who treasures a single breasted suit from 1988. Here he tells us the story behind it.

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As you all know, I caught the shoe bug a long time ago and could not shirk the opportunity to create my ultimate footwear for Autumn as part of the SIXby6bloggers project. To think that ideas that have been bouncing around my brain unreleased for years have now been realised is nothing short of remarkable. However, as exciting as the finished product is, one of the real highlights of the entire process came during a visit to Guimaraes in Portugal where I met the Six London team, had the opportunity to talk through my design with the craftsmen who were going to help realise my footwear fantasy and took a stroll through the factory where the majority of their men's shoes are made. As I was led around the family run factory, I eagerly snapped away at each well honed process and got a little carried away with closeups of machinery.

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We hope you've enjoyed our offering throughout 2011 but here's to kicking ass in 2012...or at the very least...many more posts. Happy New Year folks!