Fashion Week- Scarf Mania

Scarves have been big at London Fashion Week this month.  And colour looks set to be big for A/W 2011-12.  We love this flock of flying squares ascending the stairwell at Somerset House. 

Fashion Weak!

We are going weak at the knees for London Fashion Week. And it's not just a result of days spent tottering round Somerset House in Loubotins; there are some truly exquisite things to be seen.  


We really enjoyed Lara Bohinc's scarf launch: she's printed her jewellery on scarves. Beautiful. It's so different from what we do, but we adore it.  Hopefully this time next year we'll be rubbing shoulders in London's finest scarf departments. 


 And we had a lovely chat with Desiree Mejer at Fake London. She has some beautiful designs up her sleeve,  and a really welcoming atmosphere in her showroom.  Just like us she's channeling the Brit thing in style. 


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Picture of the day...

We thought this looked like fun...

Perhaps she got her idea from this lady in an even earlier picture

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We would recommend wearing a scarf around that hat, just to keep it on when the wild beast bucks. 

Valentines Idea.

If you are at a loss for something to do this Valentines. May we suggest this......

Photo © Cent Magazine et Manuel Vason - Ropes : Esinem

Lovely shoes too! See more work by bondage artist Esinem, who we love btw,  HERE. 

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Samples Looking Oh so gorgeous...

We are sooo excited about our Autumn/ Winter 2011-12 scarf samples. We can hardly wait to show buyers the designs, which thus far have only been seen by the design and sampling team.   We are so proud to have found excellent suppliers and talent here in the UK, enabling us to keep our product genuinely Made in England.  

Seshoeshoe Fabric (Se-shwe- shwe)

Our designer Ali has a vivd memory from her childhood in Southern Africa: the smell of freshly dyed Seshoeshoe cloth.  It's a lovely fresh inky smell,  the smell of crafted newness. This gorgeous heavy cotton is unique to Southern Africa and easily rivals the best Liberty print for beauty.  It often features African animals and flora in tight patterns.  Ali remembers indigo or brown shoeshoe, but it also comes in red. The cloth is stiff when new, but soon softens up when washed. It makes great skirts, dresses and furnishings.  Lesotho, where Ali grew up, manufactures it, as does South Africa.


  Some of our favorite designs are the Nelson Mandela print below, and a baby elephant print pictured on this cushion cover;  a treasure, which Ali was given as a child.

You can buy seshoeshoe at:
http://www.africanfabric.co.uk


And here is a brilliant blog entry from South Africa on Shweshwe
Click HERE!

We love our Mommes....

Mommes are the units of weight used to measure the density of silk.  A light weight chiffon might have a momme weight of 8mm, while a heavy raw silk might be 40mm.  Mmmm...mommmes. 

 At Age of Reason we are big fans of Crepe de Chine. 

Vamp it up!

We love to dress up at Age of Reason. At the moment we are inspired by Theda Bara, 1920's vamp actress extarordinaire.  We hope people will be wearing our scarves like this next winter. 

Get Inspiration in London

We love to get inspiration for our scarf designs from the sights of London. Some of our favorite places to go are...


The Wallace Collection at Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN 
When we met Vivienne Westwood  at Paris fashion week a few years ago she was raving about this backstage.  She told us to go and see it, we were terrified (of Vivienne not the Wallace collection)  but we did. 


The V&A is outstanding in every way. The collections of historic costumes are out of this world. 


Hampstead Heath A walk in the park is wonderful. 


Fournier Street in Spitalfields, London E1, is a beautiful street of 18th century houses. Gilbert and George make no secret of living down this road.  


Princelet street nearby is also magnificent.  Number 19, an original Huguenot house, is dedicated to the history of immigration. The house is one of the most amazing buildings in the Uk.  


The British Museum is an old favorite that we revisit time and time again.  The African collections are particularly inspirational to us. 

Prints, Prints, Prints! Autumn Winter 2011- 2012 Collection

Our friends at the printers are working hard to achieve the Age of Reason Autumn Winter colour palette. We are experimenting with different silks to create fabulous wearable pieces. 
Some other prints we love are scarves by Swash, and Barnzley Armitage's T-Shirt prints at Child of the Jago. 


Printed silks rule!

Happy New Year scarf lovers!

Here at "Age of Reason" our New Year's resolution is to experiment with more fabulous ways to tie scarves.  We've been experimenting with plaiting 3 of our designs together, and the result is rather gorgeous.  

We absolutely love Liberty's scarf hall and the extensive scarf related resources on their website. You can see their wonderful scarf tying videos here in which stylist Lauranne Plat demonstrates chic technique.  And they even have a scarf blog! 

In praise of Maximalism!

Enough with minimalism! Let's have a bit of maximalism.

Here's one of our favorite models, Alek Wek, wearing a fab headscarf over sculptural hair. 

And here's the doyenne of maximalist style Iris Apfel wearing everything she could find. 

Simply gorgeous!

Let it Snow!

We are on the borders of Scotland talking to lovely sewing people. Looks like white Christmas. Very inspiring for next AW Season.

We are Listening to- Dark Horses

Dark Horses single "Alone" comes out today. If you don't know them already listen here on their myspace page. They are as dark, deep and sublime as the name suggests. The music is like sinking into complex black treacle. We love Dark Horses.

Photo by Pierre Angélique 

Age of Reason- Autumn Winter 2011- 2012 Collection

It may seem a long way off, but Age of Reason is thinking about Autumn Winter 2011- 2012.  Inspired by visions of a future winter filled with nature's hues, we are enjoying the craft of drawing and painting.  We  design luxurious silk scarves for the discerning dresser. And if we can pepper them with a smattering of audacious humour, and throw in a dash of punk, then all the better.  And remember: silk, is light as a feather, but it can be a warm and sumptuous cloth.  Watch this space.