The Anti Fashion Klown Tribe

Today's post was supposed to be about a group of influential fashionistas and creatives that I follow Instagram, but I found myself totally girl crushing on Tuttii Fruitti London and ended up listening to podcast interviews and watching YouTube videos to find out more about them! So, here it is, a lil' post dedicated to Tuttii Fruitti London, if you think I'm colourful then get ready to be dazzled!

TUTTII FRUITTI LONDON

The Tuttii Fruittii Klowns

Tuttii Fruittii London caught my eye on Instagram a few years ago, after I started to follow, the self confessed Clown Hair Sculptures, Tuttii Fruittii and Toni Tits. I became fascinated with their anti fashion, punk clown styling. I just love their self titled Technicolour Hair Sculptures and their own personal clown style.

Toni Tits & Tuttii Fruittii in their salon in Deptford

First things first, They are Klowns and I love them for it!

The Tuttii Fruitti salon started off in a caravan that often went on tour, around festivals as an art installation, as well as a hair salon, when not based in an old school playground in Deptford, London. Following the gentrification of Deptford and their beloved school being turned into flats, Tutti Fruitti opened their own salon on Douglas Way in Deptford, I think a year ago, (instagram tells me they've just had a one year anniversary party).

The Tuttii Fruitti caravan and salon 

The salon is decorated in their awe-inspring style of mixing colourful, patterns and artwork into their safe and welcoming space for all who are wanting to get their hair sculpted into amazing styles by these beautiful Klowns. I am dying to get down to Deptford and get my hair did! Imagine if they were in Bristol, I'd be in there all the time!

The Tuttii Fruitti Klown style is a mix of traditional clown and London street style. The make-up is contemporary and tribal and reminds me of, a very bright and colourful,  Leigh Bowery and NYC Club Kid style mashed up with clown prints and memphis style art, creating their signature Tuttii Fruitti style.

The hair sculptures mix intricate, shaved, undercut styles with bright colours and patterns. Tuttii Fruitti even incorporate prints and styles from traditional clown costumes into their hairstyles! They are Klowns, they do hair and they are just amazing! I love them!

An example of Tuttii Fruitti's unique hair sculpting and make up creations

Watch this video interview with Tuttii Fruittii on the INFRINGE magazines youtube video for a chance to learn more about the fascinating world of Tuttii Fruitti London!

All images courtesy of Tuttii Fruittii London. 

If you are having a fashion event or a have a new collection you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine under my name 
Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name.

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas.   
ND xx

Mind your Manners

I was introduced to Manners London by Joh Rindom at the That Thing Festival launch in her Stokes Croft shop. I had scanned all the lovely garms, knowing I was going to buy something at the event (I always do) and one of the items, a monochrome geometric printed catsuit had caught my eye. I had paused and thumbed the item as I passed through the clothes rail and I turned around to see Joh greeting me wearing the very same outfit! It looked amazing! 

I usually dismiss a catsuit as I am not a skinny girl, just an average size 12/14 with a few squishy bits, but that's to be expected of a woman in her 40's whose had three kids! But seeing this catsuit (or jumpsuit as it is named at Manners) looking so amazing on Joh, just made me want the catsuit even more!

All dressed up in my Manners London jumpsuit for my gig at the Bristol Harbour Festival

The reason I am highlighting my shape is that what I hadn't realised on first inspection was that Manners London  - as their website suggests  - is 'not your average bodycon'. Using a trademarked fabric, Manners create gorgeous bodycon garms with added support for women with boobs, bums and tums! 

The VV Bodysuit worn by curvy and fabulous models

Joh Rindom and No Debutante twnning in our Manners London jumpsuits at the That Thing Festival fashion launch party
Photographs courtesy of Dulcie Horn

I can wear my Manners jumpsuit without a bra and I still feel safe, comfortable and nipped in, this garm is so flattering and |I love everything from the soft, comfortable fabric, the contemporary 'Esk print' and the low cut back, which makes me feel so happy to be able to go bra-less and actually bear my back! Something I would not have done before.

Manners London bodycon suits all shapes and sizes!

I am an avid bra wearer, I believe you should wear a well fitting and supportive bra and pay money to have the best cut bras, no Primark cheapies for me! At Uni I specialised in lingerie fashion design and my final collections featured a beautiful and fun supportive bra for a larger young woman; due to a gap in the market for beautiful bra's for bigger girls at the time. As you can imagine the decision to go bra-less wasn't taken lightly! 

Super cute yellow jumpsuit and Ikan print bodysuit

Since discovering Manners London I have fallen in love with the brand for many reasons, the first being that I just love the garms, the second is the supportive super thick stretch jersey fabrics and the third is that this brand focuses on making women of all shapes and sizes feel great in their garms. The story behind the brand is rather empowering too. 

Not your average bodycon! 

Self taught, designer and mother Sally Mansfield was forced to use local tailors, whilst living in Bali to make up garms for her curvier figure, as shockingly the Balinese shops sizes (and Asian shops in general) wouldn't fit her! Are there no curvy women in Asia?? Apparently not!

Sally Mansfield founder and designer at Manners London

Sally became inspired to create her own brand after befriending her fave tailors and asking them to help her produce a micro fashion collection with dreams of becoming her own boss to give her more time to spend with her son. The collection was created to empower woman and to be more inclusive of plus sizes. To stay connected to Bali all of the originally designed prints are hand screen printed in Indonesia. 

It's time to burn those bra's! 

On her return to London, Sally sold these amazing garms at Portabello and Spitalfields Markets, gaining inspiring and loyal customers along the way. Sally says the best part of her Manner London journey has been meeting so many beautiful, powerful, interesting, kind and strong women along the way! What an inspiration! 

I am a keen promoter of independent designers and Manners London is definitely my current obsession! 

Manners London Jumpsuits featuring No Debutante's fave red racer stripe want! 

There are so many amazing garms to be found from deep back bodycon dresses, flared trousers, pencils skirts with thick and supportive comfy waistbands, more jumpsuits, (I have my eye on the red go faster stripe style jumpsuit next) crop tops, wrap tops, leggings, bodysuits and the big trend of the year the Bardot top dress! All in flattering hot reds or blacks or in various prints from tropical leaves, to my fave Esk prints (in monochrome or super cute yellow and white) to beautiful fish (Ikan) prints.

Bodycon dresses with the shape of the summer  - The Bardot shoulder

Want to feel supported, empowered and glamorous without the restrictions of a bra? Free yourself and get over to Manners London now or regret it forever! 

Buy your Manners garms here www.mannersldn.com

No Debutante Loves Manners London! 

All photos (except the one's featuring No Debutante) courtesy of Manners London.

If you are having a fashion event, a new collection or fun event you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

No Debutante promotes fashion independents, new designers & sustainable fashion. 

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine under my name 

Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name. 

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas

ND xx

T-shirt Cult Culture Subversion

At the weekend I actually removed myself from Bristol's comfy sofa and went along to an exhibition in London, that I would usually wish I had attended!  

It was all about T-shirts and I love T-shirts! Punk t-shirts, band t-shirts, slogan t-shirts, customised t-shirts. T-shirts are great aren't they?

The T-shirt Cult Culture Subversion exhibition was held at the Fashion and Textiles Museum, which was founded by the fabulous Zandra Rhodes, a new fact that I quite liked.

As soon as we (I had been joined by my childhood friends 'The Rach(a)el's') walked in the building there were display cabinets of Katherine Hamnett's famous political slogan t-shirts and a massive wall hanging of a Johnny Rotten t-shirt, which I kinda wanted to take home but it was so big I'd have to use it as a duvet cover. 

The exhibition was full of Vivenne Westwood's back catalogue of t-shirts from the punk t-shirts from Sex, Let it Rock and Seditionaires to the pirate inspired Worlds End to the contemporary political Westwood t-shirts, let's face it Vivienne loves a t-shirt! It was exciting to get to see all the original punk t-shirts too, all displayed on urban scaffolding style arrangements, just waiting to be explored.

There were a few examples of printing techniques from screen printing and digital printing to tacky glittered transfer t-shirts from the 1970's and early 80's, reminding me of some t-shirt gems that I was very upset to grow out of as a little kid.

The section of band t-shirts had iconic album cover prints from The Velvet Underground 'Banana' album with it's pop-art Warhol print and the legendary Joy Division 'Unknown Pleasures' T-shirt, that has been recreated and ripped off by other brands more times than I can remember, to the t-shirt that is the epitome of the 1980's Frankie Say Relax. If that t-shirt hadn't of been at the exhibition I would have walked out!

The Rach(a)el's and I also chuckled at the Hyper Global Colour T-shirt, as it reminded us of our raving days. I had been jealous of Rachael, when she had returned from the Clothes Show Live with her amazing new tech t-shirt, that she then proceeded to wear to a rave my Dad had driven us to. But that's another story.

The other Rachel loved the glittery graphic on the vintage Biba t-shirts, they were much more her style. At this point I discovered another interesting fact that Biba (who started off as a mail order catalogue) had a multi levelled shop where each floor had its own name, logo and it's own t-shirt design! Love this!

Vintage Biba - The four logos of the Biba shop

More t-shirts could be found upstairs with a collection of designer t-shirts, all couture customised up or logo obsessive. I did quite like the punked up Chanel No.5 t-shirt though. It was also nice to see a Banksy 'Dismaland' t-shirt pop up in this section too, just to remind me of Bristol and how great it is!

The final room was full of portraits taken by photographer Susan Barnett named Typology of T-shirts that featured the backs of people's t-shirts. Barnett would street shoot individuals wearing slogans/ prints on the back of their t-shirts to show their personalities and political views, explaining that it was easier to photograph a persons back as they do not have to show their face and they feel less intimidated.

'I look for individuals who stand out in a crowd by the choice of the message on their back'.
 Susan Barnett, Photographer.

I took this opportunity to have my photo taken with the T-shirt portraits as I was coincidentally wearing my 'waste of time' cardigan by Lazy Oaf. 

People often question that particular slogan and I reply, 'it's ironic', (as are all of the Lazy Oaf slogans) I am always cramming so much stuff into my life, I never see anything as a 'waste of time', except when I'm queueing, I hate queueing! You would be amazed at how many people actually take that cardigan slogan literally! I did have to remove the cardigan once when I realised I was wearing it at my oldest son's parents evening. I'm not sure they'd see the funny side,  although I did think it was hilarious to be wearing it. The power of the slogan, eh? 

Debutante

Overall, I did enjoy the T-shirt exhibition but I did feel they were missing skate t-shirts. Maybe it's because my husband skates, so I know more about skate t-shirts, than your average fashionista/ t-shirt lover; but there really are so many iconic skate t-shirts that could have been featured. Including the late 1980s/early 90s Vision Streetwear t-shirts, to the infamous Santa Cruz Screaming Hand print by artist Jim Phillips. Yeah, I probably do care a little more about these t-shirts but I think just one skate t-shirt could have been included somewhere? Especially since skate fashion is a big thing from the catwalks, to label lovers to every kid in the street!

The T-shirt Cult Culture Subversion exhibit has inspired me to share the vast t-shirt collection, that my husband and myself have managed to hoard over the years, with you lovely lot; this may take a bit of time to compile but watch this space for the No Debutante T-shirt Obsession blog post, inspired by this Fashion and Textiles museum visit.

Thanks for having me London, I will be back again soon for more fashion fun xx

All photography by No Debutante

If you are having a fashion event, a new collection or fun event you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

No Debutante promotes fashion independents, new designers & sustainable fashion. 

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine under my name 

Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name. 

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas

ND xx

The Gem of Lazy Oaf

Gemma Sheil is an illustrator, a fashion designer & the creative brains behind Lazy Oaf. You know how much No Debutante loves Lazy Oaf, don't you?

I had to feature Gemma in today's post as a contemporary fashion designer whose fashion brand & garms influence so many fashionistas & designers, including me! I often get many questions & compliments about my Lazy Oaf garms when I wear them & since International Women's Day is on the horizon, I had to give this inspiring, creative & successful female a mention!

Lazy Oaf Rainbow Cardigan

Lazy Oaf, as a brand, has done everything correctly, from the quirky styling, the super-cute colours, the artwork & the whole premise of Lazy Oaf works so well together. You just get it, the fun words on garms about being lazy & bored mashed up with cute styles, characters & colourways, on (always) generously cut garments (it just had to be a women that got this so right) creating colourful streetwear in shapes that are always on point & usually way ahead of the curve!

Sweet ruffles at Lazy Oaf

Gemma started selling her hand printed garms on Spitifields market, printing t-shirts from her Dad's garage, the bespoke range became so successful that Gemma & Lazy Oaf relocated to their flagship store in Soho where they have been ever since.

Lazy Oaf Mens Trip Out hoodie

The store itself is like a fun house of colour, mixing quirky graphics with modernist interior design with a soft, pastel edge. I love it so much that I want to decorate my house like the Lazy Oaf shop, everything Lazy Oaf do is on it!

Amazing Lazy Oaf Shop Interiors

Gemma has now launched a new label named G.E.M which celebrates being a girl & what that means to her, influenced by strong women including Madonna & Bjork, who play around with their indentities and create new personas. This is mixed with 80s glamour and Soho punk influences, creating a range of garms to wear to be rebellious and not do what you are told!

This girl is so inspiring as a fashion designer, creative and feminist. Yes, Gemma Sheil! Keep on, Keeping it weird! 

G.E.M Flemenco long sleeve t-shirt

G.E.M Sheer up jacket

No Debutante wearing a Lazy Oaf cardigan

Read the No Debutante post on G.E.M here 

All images (except the last image) courtesy of Lazy Oaf

If you are having a fashion event, a new collection or fun event you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

No Debutante promotes fashion independents, new designers & sustainable fashion. 

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine here under my name 

Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name. 

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas

ND xx 

Lazy Oaf drops G.E.M a super cute new label with balls

Lazy Oaf have dropped the cutest new collection named G.E.M, a venture label to Lazy Oaf by founder Gemma Shiel, who wants to make G. E.M a fashion label for girls with balls! Gemma wanted this new label to be even more surreal and weird, with an element of glamour, mystery and excitement! This is all sounds right up No Debutante's street! There are some rock'n'roll punk elements to the first G.E.M collection with a pastel cute aspect that Lazy Oaf are known and loved for, G.E.M adds some rebellious glamour that makes it stand apart from Lazy Oaf's goofy-cool streetwear style. Check out my favourite pieces below and sigh over their beautifullness....  

Flamenco long sleeve t-shirt

Sheer Jacket

Day Dreamer t-shirt

Pink fluffed up top

Check, Check it out dress

Dreamy leopard coat

Leopard Flares

Swanning around dress

All images courtesy of Lazy Oaf

Words By No Debutante

If you are having a fashion event or a have a new collection you would like No Debutante to promote please get in touch!

Check out my work with Bristol 24/7 magazine here under my name 

Emma Gorton-Ellicott

If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me nodebutanteblog@gmail.com

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr,  Pinterest all under the #nodebutante name.

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas.   

ND xx