Accessorise!

I’ve been asked by a number of people recent, “Where is the best place to get my bow ties and braces?”

Well, after hunting around a bit, I have found that it is possible to get everything from a single source, at a good price – and pretty screen accurately too!

Swagger & Swoon, from where I recommended an Alternative Tennant Tie, also stock bow ties and braces.

Their bow ties are £12.99 for the burgundy, and £16.99 for a navy one (see below).

Burgundy Narrow Bow Tie

Post Series Five costume index

With filming well underway for Series Six, I thought it was time to catch up on a couple of Eleventh Doctor appearances which have happened since the end of Series Five.

Doctor Who BBC Prom

Jacket Harris Tweed in Mackenzie two-by-two dogtooth weave

Shirt Burgundy Paul Smith

Trousers Dogtooth design skinny jeans from TopMan
NB. These jeans can be quickly identified by the visible metal waistband button at the top of the fly (see left)

Boots All Saints Layer boots

Paul Smith reissue shirt - the review

Well, my reissue shirt arrived yesterday, and I’ve now had a good chance to look it over and can venture some opinion on how it looks, and it’s not entirely positive I’m afraid.

I had high hopes for the shirt, and to be honest I’ve been left a little disappointed. If someone knew the exact cut and details of the shirt, it would be Paul Smith, but sadly they seemed to have missed a trick here.

Paul Smith shirt - going, Going. . . oh no, back in stock again

No sooner had the Paul Smith shirts come back in stock last week, they were sold out in THREE DAYS!

We were warned that there were just a limited reissue, so once they were gone – they were GONE!

Well, in a curious twist of fate, they are back in stock – AGAIN!

A word of advise: from what I gather, there were no XXLs made for any of this reissue, so if you are hanging on for that size don’t wait around – grab an XL as this is the biggest they will be making.

Paul Smith shirt - going, Going, GONE!!

Yesterday I managed to grab myself a Paul Smith shirt in XL.

Someone had emailed me to note that only the Small and XL were left, with the rest all out of stock. It was a lucky tip off, since after I placed my order in the morning, the entire supply of shirts was listed as out of stock.

We’ve been told that the shirt was coming back as a limited run, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so limited! The advice to grab them while you can appears to have come to fruition.

I hope everyone who wanted one grabbed one in time.

Paul Smith shirt - Floral Street trip

With the Paul Smith shirts at long last in stock, I obviously now want to get myself one.

When I got mine first time round, I wanted an XL, but annoyingly they were sold out, so I had to buy an XXL. As it happened, the shirt was a very slim, tailored fit, and the XXL fitted me fine.

This time round I thought I should get the same, but despite going online on the first day they were available, the XXLs were sold out.

I had heard that the Floral Street branch in London’s Covent Garden (see above) was due to be the only retail outlet for the shirts, so I went down then to take a look.

Paul Smith shirt - BACK IN STOCK!!!!!

This week is one of the few times dreams come true for Doctor Who cosplayers!

The much demanded and anticipated Paul Smith ‘scroll stripe’ shirt worn by Matt Smith in series five is now finally back in stock, having been brought back by popular demand.

Paul Smith Shirt | ‘Scroll Stripe’ Shirt

Death Of The Doctor - BFI preview

It’s only been a couple of days since I went to the Doctor Who Live show, but last night I was at the BFI South Bank to see a preview of the Death Of The Doctor episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Greatest Show In The Galaxy...?

It’s Saturday night, and I’ve just got back in from seeing the Doctor Who Live Show.

Hummmm

It was at the Wembley Arena (see right), which thankfully is only 30 minutes drive from where I am. We hit a bit of traffic, but we got there pretty much in time.
Parking was £22, which for only a couple of hours is a rip-off - but where are you gonna park, if you don’t know the area?

Doctor Who On Ice - the hype

Last night saw the first performance of the Doctor Who Live show.
It premiered at the Wembley Arena, before touring the country, taking in nine cities in four weeks!

I’m going tonight and am really looking forward to seeing what it’s all about.

To drum up some interest, there has been a flurry of press and media activity, with Matt Smith doing a live interview for Sky News.

Paul Smith PS shirt - reissued!

Great news has finally been confirmed for those wanting a Paul Smith PS shirt identical to the one worn by the Eleventh Doctor.

Paul Smith announced this week that the shirt has been brought back by popular demand and will be available via their Internet store and in the Floral Street branch in London's Covent Garden.

All change!

I’m not referring to the Number 11 bus – but the Number Eleven Doctor!

The new series of Matt Smith episodes is currently in production, and some on location pictures have emerged, showing The Doctor’s NEW costume!

Some pictures were knocking around when the Christmas special was being lensed, but they were quite distant and not top quality. These new ones, however, have been taken by paparazzi and so are much higher res and show a lot more detail.

What they do show are the complete change of costume assembled for the new series. Now, it doesn’t at first glance look that different, but like the season 19 vs season 21 Fifth Doctor chance, it is a revisiting of the constituent parts.

So, what’s changed?

Return to the Proms

Today was a busy and exciting day. It was the latest Doctor Who Proms, plus I was unexpectedly working freelance, which meant everything was a bit more rushed than I’d like.

MY DAY
When I’m not tailoring, I do occasional days of freelance work doing partly what I did prior to being laid off work last year. For over 20 years I have worked in art studios of either design or advertising agencies, as well as pre-press houses, preparing artwork for print.

The past couple of days I have been at Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the most famous advertising agencies in London. In the 1970s and 1980s they did some iconic advertising work.

Two of their most famous was for the Conservative Party prior to them beating Labour in our 1979 election.

Their poster, “LABOUR ISN’T WORKING” (see above) has been aped many a time; and their poster for anti smoking poster for the Public Health Department, depicting a pregnant man (see right), has also gone down in advertising history - and it was a public information poster, not some high profile multiple-national company. In fact the in house bar/pub at Saatchi's is called The Pregnant Man.

Working at their office is quite inspirational. Across the threshold is carved the words NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE..... (see left)

Anyway, so after telling them I HAD to be out the door by 5pm, we headed down to Kensington and the Royal Albert Hall.

eBay madness

Buses can be annoying – you wait for ages, then three come along at once!

Well the same can be said for Paul Smith PS shirts on eBay recently.
In July last year, when news broke that Matt Smith was wearing a Paul Smith shirt, everyone was frantically looking to find where to get hold of one. Supplies quickly ran out, and the old reliable fall-back of eBay came into its own when the occasional shirt did appear ever few weeks. Some went for reasonable prices, others a bit higher if two bidders went head-to-head.

But recently there have been fewer and fewer on offer, until a couple of weeks back.

The recent spate of shirts have all been of the blue flavour, and each has been interesting different from each other.

STRIPED CUFFS - SCREEN ACCURATE?

First to be listed, on 1st July, was a very unusual PS shirt (see below).

It was notable for having striped cuffs, but with a top-stitching unlike any I have seen to date; it also had a unconcealed button-stand; and a slightly fitted back.
It is the first shirt I have seen with a red buttonhole on the placket, which is visible on-screen, especially in The Eleven Hour. To date, this is the closest I have seen to the screen-worn shirts.

It had an amazing starting price of just £1, but sold after 28 bids for £250.

SLIM-FIT, PLAIN CUFFS

Then on 10th July another shirt appeared on eBay (see below).
This was a standard shirt, the same as the ones available from johnanthony.com last year.
It had a concealed button stand; plain cuffs; and is likely to have had a heavily tailored back and a breast pocket as the John Anthony shirts did, but it was not possible to confirm this from the photos.

It had a starting price of £40, and sold after 15 bids for £105, which is in line with the price of some new Paul Smith shirts.

STRIPED CUFFS

Finally worth mentioning, is another shirt that was listed on 13th July (see below).

This appears to be identical to a shirt I bought from tobi.com.

It has striped cuffs; an exposed button-stand; and looks to be the more generous fit.

This opened with a £10 staring price, but quickly spiraled out of control, and by the time it closed 10 days later, it had reached a staggering £650!!!!!

FRENCH CUFFS

In September 2010 Ryan put his unusual burgundy PS shirt with French cuffs up for sale.

There were some nice detail pictures of the shirt, including those cuffs.
From a starting price of $99, the bidding soon was creeping up, and by the end of the auction it had reached $350 (£226 to keep it in context with the other shirts above).

A bit of a hint – I can’t wait to see those cuffs at first hand . . .

Finally, as a reminder, here is a list of the variations I have seen in the Paul Smith shirts using the distinctive squiggly design.
If you have another variation not listed here, do drop me a line.

1. John Anthony
These were available in both colours; no button-stand, concealed buttonholes; plain cuffs; sleeve straps; slim fit, heavily tailored back; breast pocket; embroidered PS on sleeve placket

2. Tobi.com
Only available in blue; visible buttons, but no button-stand; striped starched cuffs; standard fitting, no back tailoring; embroidered PS on sleeve placket

3. Found by Ryan
Blue shirt; French double-cuffs

4. eBay - sold for £250
Very similar to (2) but top-stitching on cuff set much further in from edge; red placket buttonhole

The Tour Of Doom

This is one of my delayed entires.

I should have posted this at least a week back, but due to my vertigo attack, I was unable to finish writing it. Here it is at last.

Here is the list of my week:

23rd June - BONHAMS AUCTION

24th June - CARDIFF TOUR

26th June - LONDON TOUR

27th June - SIX COAT (Cloth Ears)

So, it was the 24th of June, and day two of my week of who events. this time taking me on a guided tour of the Cardiff locations used in the new series.