'Tweet Tweet Tweet'

Once again David Longshaw has captured my imagination with his descriptive stories and beautiful prints. This collection for Autumn Winter 11/12 is an exciting mix of narrative, photographic and illustrative prints, and collaboration. So obviously I needed to find out more about it and contacted David to explain the inspiration behind the collection and the collaborations involved.What is the inspiration behind your collection?
Here's the story-A/W 2011/12 Inspiration.

Seriously Rose, I can’t bloody believe it here, they’ve stuck me in the middle of sodding nowhere with these religious nuts who expect me to go to church with them and sit shitting cross stitching by the fire ‘of an eve.’ What do they think it is, the bloody 15thCentury?’ They don’t drink and they don’t f****ing swear. There’s no one my age I’ve met other than one or two who are destined to die virgins unless one of them changes sex and their parents force them in to an arranged marriage to procreate more dull, weird looking bastards! ‘Don’t even get me started on the sodding birds! It’s supposed to be quiet in the countryside, but every morning at 5am all I get is bloody tweet, tweet, tweet; they even tap on the window- I thought it was someone at the front door at first. It’s a nightmare when you’ve got a hangover. I managed to smuggle in some booze but I’m running low.'

Tora, a wayward girl, gets sent to live with her tea-total, religious, cross stitching, aunt and uncle in the middle of nowhere, to try get her on the straight and narrow. She takes a soft toy named Frank with her, which has a pet shoe and a love of whisky.

Who have you collaborated with and how was it that you came to work with them?
This season for the first time I've teamed up with footwear designer Heather Blake. And for the 3rd season with Kirsty Ward on jewellery and the milliner Katherine Lee on a special show piece.

Heather was in the year above me at the RCA (She won the accessories prize at ITS#5), she exhibited at Somerset House during LFW, in my first season there and the LFW newspaper borrowed Heathers shoes to shoot with my garments on the blogger Katie of 'what Katie wore next'- They looked great together- so Heather suggested a collaboration.

With Katherine Lee we've worked together since my MA, were friends from home. She's a milliner now but when she first started collaborating with me she had been designing fabrics in Italy for the big fashion houses.

With Kirsty we first met at Alberta Ferretti, in Italy where we were designing. We've worked together since I started my own label.

Have any of your characters helped you with this collection?

The new characters from my A/W story have obviously helped, but also Selnec &Harriet, her rabbit (who I write with for Fashion156) are both decorating the scarf collaboration with Dominique Mosley (The S/S ones have already sold out in Rome and Hong Kong).

I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I do!! I am already saving my pennies for that beautiful shirt! As always I eagerly await the next season and hopefully another wonderful story accompanied by truly beautiful and creative clothes.Look out for articles by David and his friends on Fashion156 and his website.

Speak soon! Have a lovely style post coming up and some seasonal trends from Cabot Circus.
Fashion Fantasist xx