Architecture – Stylitz

We’re nearing the end of January and whilst another month of winter is still ahead I feel that spring is almost within reach. Also in London we have been very lucky of late and have been treated to some beautiful bright crisp days. I have been making the most of these and getting out whenever possible and I encourage you to do the same. Take the opportunity today or this weekend to wrap up in a warm coat and woolly scarf and venture out in the open air. And I know it may seem obvious, but whilst you’re out take a look around. Last week I took these photos of my local London park, Tooting Common. As you can see by the shadows these were taken in the late afternoon. I find the low, warm winter light at this time of year stunning. It makes everything incredibly photogenic!

Above pictures all taken on Tooting Common

On another day of observational exploring I started noticing the features on the surrounding Tooting houses. Having studied fashion design at University I am often inspired by details, be it textures, patterns or colour combinations. This is something that has stayed with me in my work as a stylist and I regularly note clever pairings or interesting decorations along with the more traditional fashion-focused outfit spotting. As you can see you never know what you may find on your doorstep or how it will inspire your work or an outfit in the future. Happy exploring!

Here the contrast of the stripy pattern of the brickwork and the interlinking circles of the balcony caught my eye.

A surprise find by the side of a Londis store – mustard, olive and burgundy hued floral tiling

I love this textural colour combination of matt red bricks, shiny green tiles and black wooden door

Well, what a busy and inspiring 10 days I have had. As well as filming the last Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew of series 3, I have also just styled a 4 day online street style campaign for Gap. This featured real people and the casting was superb – a truly unique & creative group. My blogs over the next few weeks will be a testament to all the new things I have seen or heard about recently.

The first I would like to mention is a great company called London Letters that I stumbled across in Old Street tube station early last week. Being both creative and interested in words this really caught my eye. The concept is naturally occurring unique letters on the streets of London, be it buildings, graffiti, railings, doors – you name it, owner Richard has shot it. He has even been known to spot an O in a pile of litter…

With a background in architecture you could say Richard has always had an acute eye for detail, however it was after an inspiring trip to Chicago in 2011 that he decided to start the London Letters project. The images can be purchased as individual letters on cards or postcards (cards £2 each, postcards £1) or as A4 or A3 prints, with London area names such as Brixton and Wood Green currently available. Richard also happily takes commissions & letters can be spliced together to create personalized messages or prints, making a fabulous present for that difficult-to-please friend who has everything.

The top letters are those featuring bold colour or a strong graphic shape – check out the R above – but the key is that all of these can be found around London and there is no editing or rotating of images. Each comes with a distinctive tag with the company logo and the location of the letter, so you can go and see it for yourself in situ. Buy some to give as birthday cards or go for a full set of A-Z and use them to teach your child the alphabet. As you can see I have created my own version of my blog name using the letters. So much fun!