Patrick Melcher

Skater, pirate and style hero. (Can't believe I just called someone a style hero, feel like a 13 year old anorexic girl)








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APC Spring '10 standouts.

I love APC, very french and very clean. Their new lookbook has a few real standout pieces:

This mac (355euros), t (40euros) and desert boots (245euros) are amazing but I'm never keen on white trousers.

I'm not keen on the colour but this cardigan (165euros) has a great cut, so too do the trousers (180euros) and I love the washed out white t (40euros).

And this is the ultimate duffel coat. It's amazing and I want it. Where am I going to get 375 euros though?

The Hundreds new shoe collection.

I'm not mad about the whole collection but these are amazing, I'm definitely getting a pair. Which colour though?

or

Norse

Absolutely loving this killer new stuff from Norse, clean minimal design means it's all about the cut. Hats off to them, they've nailed it.

Am I hip yet?

more more more

I've had so many ideas buzzing round in my head this past week and a bit it's been killing me!

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A nice and complex pattern.

based on Islamic style tiling

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A nice and simple new pattern.

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This film looks amazing.

I'm working on some new stuff right now.

including new blog posts, but mainly new prints and patterns. So stay tuned. Will try and post at least something every day/couple of days.

(By the way, this isn't even close to being finished. It's just sketching out ideas.)

Flying Lotus mix Sonar 2007

Got put onto this mix by Danny (@HeyMr) who runs the excellent Breaks of 10 and hadn't heard it before, top notch as usual!

Playlist:

Fela Kuti - Water Get No Enemy (Edit) - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Spicy Sandwich - Warp
Flying Lotus - Massage Situation - Warp
Madvillain - Flying Lotus Remix - Stones Throw
Flying Lotus - LTWX - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Raise It Up (Remix) - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Notch - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Untitled - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Vegas Collie - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Rickshaw - Unknown
Flying Lotus - Kut Mah Shit - Unknown
Dabrye & Phat Kat - Game Over (Remix) - Ghostly
Flying Lotus - My Room Is White - Plug Research
Flying Lotus - Orbit Brazil - Plug Research
Rolling Stones - Paint It Black - Decca
Flying Lotus ft. Andreya Triana - Tea Leaf Dancers- RBMA

Enjoy!

One for the Textile Designers out there.

This garment landed on my desk this morning, it's a T from Bershka and has quite an interesting technique on that I don't think I've seen before. No doubt it's been around a while but it's definitely a new idea at work. The T has rows of sequins stitched in a rectangular arrangement and my initial thought was that each sequin had been individually coloured which I quickly realised couldn't be done. 

How they've done it is sublimation printing directly onto white sequins which have already been sewn to the shirt. You can tell by the run off either side at the top where the design has missed the sequins a bit. I'm not sure how they've avoided getting dye on the shirt, I'm assuming that this couldn't be done with a white top as it would inevitably transfer some of the dye to the fabric. But I think it's a fairly safe technique with darker bases like the charcoal here. 

Has anyone else seen more of these? Are there any white ones? I'm aware of a similar technique which involves printing the garment first (with water based inks) and then sewing transparent sequins over the top. Just don't think it looks as good... 

Colour Cheat.

A little design tip for those that love colour but aren't great at refining a pallette (this is me, in case you hadn't already guessed). Find an image you love that has a similar broad range of colour to what you want to end up with. Copy and paste it into illustrator, and use the live trace but set the number of colours really high. Expand the traced image and you'll have a mosaic version of the photo you love. It's then very easy to pick out the colours that work well together. I'm sure that tip is already old news to most people but I find it pretty useful!

Both images are from ffffound! and the colour palettes are ones that make me look forward to summer.

Finally got round to sorting out these patterns.

Still got loads to do though!

Change from a night out.

Means I get to treat myself to a selection of luxury drinks.

I love this t-shirt as much as I love Haring.

I want a Basquiat one at least as powerful.

He finally caved.

For some beautiful photography head over to Marc Ross' blog.

The coffee at Salvador Deli is some of the best I've ever tasted.

Today

I went for my first proper ride brakeless, nowhere near as dangerous as I thought it would be. If anything I think I ride safer than if I had brakes, this brings me on to music.

I think my favourite album to ride to is probably 5: 5 years of hyperdub although anything mostly instrumental with a beat is great, weirdly relaxing as you're trying to focus on what the idiot driver in front of you is going to do next.

4.03 for the best trick I've seen in ages.

Karen O

I made a pattern.

Click for higher res.

I just bought a fixed gear bike.

It's a pretty bottom of the range one but it'll be good enough to fall off! First thing I'm doing is putting drop bars on it, then taking the back brake off (I'll leave the front one on for the first week) and that sticker's coming off too.

Well.

Today the internet I've been 'borrowing' for the past couple of months got a password. Pretty gutted, I don't plan to be in Leicester for another year so I'm a bit apprehensive about paying for a 12 month contract. Any suggestions?

Who knew?

That my vintage cycling shirt was a Pendleton? Shows how much attention I pay to labels.

More graphics and texxxxxture.

After being directed to Poolga by Bobby aka Kitsune Noir to look at some iphone wallpapers by Frank Chimero I stumbled across these by Dan Matutina. I love the colour palette and texture in them. I also think I'm developing a theme in what I love in design; the aforementioned colour and texture. So yeah jazz up your phone with these, I especially love the bottom one as I'm a pattern fiend.

Connect by Dan Matutina

Banig by Dan Matutina

Dan's website

Free Font 'ALPHA'.

Decent free font this, click through the link to go to the website and download it.

Amazing LP graphics.

To those of you who reckon LP artwork is dead, look at these and tell me you wouldn't buy them. To someone who loves pattern and texture in graphics, this is like crack.

From the excellent Berlin based Ice Cream For Free.

I recommend you click to view them large.

Tron 2 Had better not be awful.

On the way to work.

Walking to work this morning, freezing.

Pendleton x Opening Ceremony

This Opening Ceremony x Pendleton collaboration has been all over the blogs and deservedly so I think. I've never been a massive fan of the native/tribal trend, having recently been to Peru and seen it's origins in the museums and textiles there western fashion's exploitation of it has seemed really quite shallow and shit.

I reckon the reason these jacquard designs work is that they are just pretty close to the original colours and patterns. I think that it's far too easy to get carried away though, the patterns are undeniable bold and so I think they should have been used with a bit more restraint such as using it for the lining of the white jacket. I like the tracksuit top though, because of the plain sleeves it works well.

The top at the bottom is pretty amazing too, I do like the whole lookbook. I've borrowed them from two different places so I'm not sure Richard Kern shot all of the photos (he definitely did the inside shoot though).

Anyway they're eye-catching whatever you think of them.