Fashion - shops and designers in Leeds

Feature If the Shoe Fits

Nicholas Deakins have hit the streets with their new range and a brand new shop fit

Nicholas Deakins on Vicar Lane (pictured) has had a big make over, and we can vouch that it looks rather splendid after popping along to their opening ceremony alongside two Leeds Rhinos players — Barrie McDermott and Jamie Peacock, no less. We took a few snaps and enjoyed perusing their snazzy new range of casual summer wear, some of which you may have noticed on our models in last fortnight’s issue.

Check out their new canvas range, which are bang on trend and a bit more affordable than most — starting at £24.99. Their new soft leather range is called…

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Off The Rails A Risky Business

Nell Frizzell explores the thriller in gorilla

So, what’s a little hair between friends? Take a short-course in weaving and it could be the very fabric holding your friendship together.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to an 80s film-themed party. Naturally, I decided to go as Tom Cruise in Risky Business. I considered Clubber Lang, Apollo Creed, Tango, or possibly Cash; but nothing else offered quite the maniacal-grinning-sexually-ambiguous-wedge-trainered pull of the Cruisemeister.

The only small problem is that the outfit in question is rather lacking in the old trouser department. Not a problem for your average Josephine, judging by this years’ Brits. From Florence’s…

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Feature St. Gemma's Hospice Vintage Fair

Do a good deed as well as find some gorgeous vintage pieces - shopping has never felt more rewarding

The good people at St. Gemma’s Hospice have taken the hard work out of finding the best clothes, jewellery, artwork and furniture from their 18 charity shops and put them all in one place. The fair, held over two days, will feature some of the finest vintage, collectable and retro items that have been donated to them.
It will also host 25 stallholders selling vintage and handmade clothes and jewellery. The retro café will serve cupcakes, teas and coffees for refreshment between grabbing bargains.
St. Gemma’s Hospice, based in Moortown, look after terminally ill patients with no cost…

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Feature Leeds Guide Pays Tribute to a Fashion Icon

We pay tribute to the late designer Alexander McQueen

We’re sure everyone will share our dismay at the recent death of British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen. As a significant loss to the world of fashion, we’d like to acknowledge this devastating news here at Leeds Guide and honour a pioneer of contemporary trends that has shaped the fashion industry for over a decade.

Our next issue will hit the shelves on 3rd March, featuring a sample of outfits from McQueen’s up-and-coming collection in our spring summer style feature. Although this went to print before any awareness of this tragic incident, it gives us all the more reason to…

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Talking Shop Radley

Lee Bell talks to Katrina Turnbull, store manager of Leeds' newest addition in the world of bags

Originating from the streets of London in 1998, Radley have come a long way. Their success, which stemmed from the small markets of Camden town, has grown to see Radley become a treasured facet of the fashion industry. With the recent retirement of their founder and creative director Lowell Harder, Katrina Turnbull tells us why Radley have decided to come to the Victoria Quarter in Leeds, and how they are much more than the notorious Scottie dog which helped to make their name.

Why have Radley come to Leeds?
“The key idea was to get a Radley store in…

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Interview Julie Lingard

Having turned her independent Leeds store Aqua Couture into the most popular brand on ASOS.com, surely Julie Lingard can relax for a while? Or maybe not, as Rebecca Ryder discovers

It is always heart warming to hear success stories about local businesses. Aqua Couture’s rise to stardom is all the more inspiring given the recent economic downturn. The company was born just over a decade ago when owner Julie Lingard bought a clothes shop in Hull, moving to Leeds’ Corn Exchange a couple of years later, before finally finding its current home in the achingly elegant Victoria Quarter.

For just over a year now, Aqua has been selling on ASOS.com, the UK’s biggest online fashion retailer. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, it became the site’s highest-selling brand. Julie…

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Off The Rails Farm Style

Nell Frizzell ploughs her furrowed brow

Listen, OK. I don’t particularly mind if people want to dress like munitions workers or early period Pentangle. And, you know, if looking like Robert Plant is your thing, or if you really do admire the sartorial leanings of mime artists then be my guest, knock yourself out.

But dressing like a farmer? Are you kidding me? Have you ever been to the countryside? It’s hardly a hot bed of alternative culture and radical thinking out there. I mean, this is the place where ‘subculture’ means a bovine bacterial infection.

Since we entered this brave new millennium I have stood…

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Try This Gent's Express Service

Ben Johnson visits Hob Salons for a busy man's trim which will have you in and out before you've even finished your lunch

The quiff, ladies and gentleman (but mostly gentlemen), is back. Don’t even try to deny it. That flamboyant fringe is everywhere right now, gleaming back at you from the heads of all the young dudes like a Mr Whippy - Brandon Flowers, David Beckham, La Roux, Jedward. You name it, they’ve quiffed it. Some more than others, of course (in La Roux’s case, that girl could probably balance furniture on her’s), but there’s something about the unshakeably stiff 50s rockabilly hair do which means that if you do get one, you can’t do it half-heartedly. Hob Salons director Danielle Hollis…

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Interview Colin Firth

As a tormented professor in A Single Man, this English gent looks set to bag an Oscar this year,

Portraying humbly suave characters is Colin Firth’s forte. With roles ranging pithily from the pantomime tomfoolery of 2008’s Mama Mia to his now archetypal role as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Firth has a tendency to let a capable performance stagnate into a bland, stereotyped persona. It is hard not to think of him as an actor whose only performance is one diluted by the charming facelessness of previous characters, but this new role, under first time director, Tom Ford, will hopefully prove a refreshing twist for Firth’s talented, but languishing repertoire.

Playing A…

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Off The Rails Valentine's Day

This fortnight, Nell Frizell is trying transvestism for love

As a fat and lustful teenager I came to the somewhat misguided decision that the best way to attract boys was to wear their clothes. Not in the sexy ‘boyfriend blazer’ sense, or in the smug ‘I’m wearing the hoodie of the man I went home with last night’ way either. I mean, I went in to boy’s clothes shops and bought boy’s clothes.

As most of the people I fancied as a youth were what Avril Lavigne would call sk8r bois, I therefore spent those fragile adolescent years dressed in massive combat trousers, spherical skate shoes and some of…

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