blendnewyork…Fashion.Art.Style.Inspiration.Love

Van Mildert is synonymous in the North of England with fashion, innovative product and lifestyle. Catering for both men and women, their stores offer fashion across many platforms to the style and image conscious. They have made it their goal since 1996 to encapsulate all that is new and exciting within the fashion industry and showcase this product under one roof alongside some of the strongest and most relevant collections in the world. All stores offer a wide variety of collections to suit our broad clientele and are spilt across sections catering for young fashion, branded fashion, concept design, and premium sportswear.

They have many great brands in their stores – with Stone Island being one of them. Stone Island is a classic Italian sportswear label founded by Massimo Osti. Established in 1981, the success of the brand is largely due to their research and innovation both in the construction and details of the finished garments and in exclusive materials developed through a tight co-operation with specific fabric producers. Taking inspiration from military uniforms and workwear, garments are highly technical making extensive use of experimental dyeing and printing techniques.

Van Mildert was established in 1996 as a men’s and women’s fashion boutique in picturesque Durham City. Retailing from an old 17th century Gaol, the Grade 1 listed building on Elvet Bridge leads to the cathedral in the heart of the city. The store certainly has character and “Bob” the “tour guide” even used to bring the city’s many daily visitors to marvel at the store, shocked by the retail space they had created. Van Mildert was certainly new and exciting, retailing in a space with so much character and history. This lifestyle store was one of the first really directional independents. Back then Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Comme Des Garçon, Helmut Lang and Costume National were only available inside of London, but now the North East had its own fashion lifestyle store – a haven for the fashionista. Books from Atlas littered the old shelves, home accessories from Atomic brightened up the display cases, and furniture from SCP was used daily by customers shopping to the latest sounds on Rough Trade. Local artists exhibited their work in store and sculpture installations from art students and the region’s designers all had a price tag, adding to the lifestyle concept. Customers from as far as London would spend an afternoon in the store with some of the most experienced and passionate staff who still feature in the industry today.

Over the last 15 years the North East has seen some of the strongest and most visionary fashion retailers in the U.K. The area is well known for its product led customer and is often compared to Manchester in their forward thinking mentality. Innovative, conceptual, cool, but overall fashionable and aspiring to wear the best clothing available. These ideals and core values are what still drive them today. Check them out here http://www.vanmildert.com/

Genre: Electronica / Rock / Psychedelic

Hometown: London / Rome

Members: Chris & Andy – Vocals, Keys, Synth, Drumz, Guitars, Bass, Programming

Bio: Born in December 2011, a new project with 2 experienced musicians with a lot of gigs, records and music as their background.

Tour Dates: Starting this month, CrySand will be on tour in Europe. They’ll ride Bielorusia, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy and maybe more. Be sure to check them out.

Visit their pages:
http://www.facebook.com/CrySandmusic
http://www.reverbnation.com/crysand

As with any true artist, I feel as if the adversity, pain, or frustration involved in one’s life is channeled into their art. They use that strife as a fire behind their instrument of artistic expression. What makes a true artist in any sense of the word? I think it comes down to passion, being true to oneself, and the desire (and need) to keep creating.

Artist Biography: Sham Idrees

Sham describes his family as travel freaks. He moved with his family to London, England at a young age. From there he travelled to Canada a little over a decade ago, finally settling down in the heart of Hamilton, Ontario at 16.

As a former grad of Orchard Park Secondary School in Stoney Creek, and a proud holder of a Bachelors of Commerce degree from the University of Ontario, Sham always had high hopes and dreams. Having worked for various organizations and companies he eventually decided to start his own business and became an entrepreneur.

His determination for living life to the fullest was renewed as his life flashed before him in a serious car accident in January of 2011. Moving to Ottawa soon after, he says his love of music and special emphasis on bitter/sad songs during this tragic time lead him to want to write. Starting off as a hobby, his passion slowly became reality and You are the Fool was written. Since then, he has written various other songs that are scheduled to be releasing sometime in the future.

Sham describes his passion and love for not only music but life in his favorite saying,

It was the uncomfortable situations in life. The mistakes, regrets, the good and the bad that became the drive and heart for my songs.”

Checkout Sham Idrees’s new album at

http://www.shamidrees.com/

Kate Middleton sure is getting to see a lot of her in-laws these days.

This afternoon she joined her father-in-law, Charles, at a south London gallery dedicated to art therapy for children. The pair were greeted by hundreds of cheering schoolchildren waving Union flags when they arrived in the bright sunshine at Dulwich Picture Gallery with the Duchess of Cornwall. It was the first time Kate had joined Charles on a visit to one of his charities. They chose to see the work of the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts at Dulwich because of their mutual interest in “art, art therapy and children,” a Clarence House spokesman said.

Kate wore a dark grey Orla Kiely dress with black pattern detail on the top, and a pleated skirt. She wore a coat dress by the same designer on a previous engagement earlier this year. The outfit was completed with black high heels.

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Brittany Snow as Lily from the eighties! With Krysten Ritter as Carol. • In what sounds like an amazing flashback scene, tonight’s Gossip Girl shows Lily van der Woodsen from the eighties: “Scouring through her older sister’s locker, Lily tries on every type of Eighties outfit imaginable — an Olivia Newton-John ‘Physical’ getup, a hard-edged Pat Benatar ensemble and Madonna’s classic combo of a belly shirt and suspenders — before finally settling into a strong-shouldered jacket, tiered dress and electric pink Givenchy heels.” This is also a mini-preview of the Gossip Girl spinoff about young Lily and Rufus.

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Gossip Girl Visits the Eighties; Tim Gunn Impressed by D.C. Style