Designer Style: Tricia Rock Spring 2011

June 15, 2011

My collection for this year’s 18th Street Fashion Show Summer in Spain features all reclaimed, hand-dyed fabrics. I love creating cool, comfortable pieces that allow a woman to live her everyday life with just a spark of originality. To incorporate the show’s Spanish theme I focused on nature and color, telling the models to imagine ...Read More

Designer Style: migh-T by Kumiko Watari

May 25, 2011

Though I’m not usually big on prints, I just love Kumiko Watari’s clever, hand-drawn creations for her three-year-old label migh-T. Check out more on her beautiful website. And be sure to take a look at her hilariously awesome graduate collection (Central Saint Martins MA, 2007). Designer Bio: Kumiko Watari was born and raised in Osaka, ...Read More

Editorial Style: Metal Magazine Features Matthew Ames

December 6, 2010

I love, love, love Matthew Ames and am glad to see him featured in the latest issue of Metal Magazine. Just wishing I could actually read the interview (highly doubt I’ll find this mag in print). Ames has a way of reinterpreting just the right aspects of the past to make them feel more modern ...Read More

Designer Style: Tricia Rock Fall 2010

November 11, 2010

Just thought I’d share with you my designs for the Fashion Monsters IV: A Nightmare on Mass Street fashion show held in Lawrence, KS on October 29, 2010. The theme of the collection is “A Clockwork Orange.” All designs are made from reclaimed fabrics. photos by B. Carter Tweet PrintShare

Designer Style: HELM

August 25, 2010

Thanks to Refinery 29 for introducing me to Austin, TX based footwear label HELM. Boots to die for that are also hand-crafted old-world style in responsible working conditions, what more can we ask for?

The HELM Story

HELM is a reinvention of iconic footwear design establishing a new foundation for the classic male boot – the shoe for the new male footwear connoisseur who will not sacrifice comfort. The vision behind HELM is founder Joshua Bingaman’s lifelong passion for men’s shoes and boots, refined during his years owning and managing the Subterranean Shoe Room in San Francisco, a highly influential and progressive shoe store in the Mission district.

Through familial connections, Bingaman was introduced to the sophisticated old-world charm of Istanbul and its renown leather expertise. After extensive investigative research and sourcing, HELM was formalized on a foundation of responsibility, integrity, passion, and trust.

HELM products are handmade by one of the best untapped handmade shoe companies in the world and are the elegant result of design touches from around the globe – designed in Austin, handmade in Istanbul, with leather from Holland and Australia, and soles from Italy and France. Bingaman: “We love these boots. We want you to feel like you’re walking around in art.”

The HELM Process

Founded by Austin-based entrepreneur Joshua Bingaman, HELM’S origins are purely passionate. From the historic design inspirations, through the expert leather craftsmanship, down to the sweet familial call names – HELM is about stylishly unpretentious integrity. Designed in Austin, handmade in Istanbul, with leather from Holland and Australia, and soles from Italy and France – HELM is the elegant result of design touches from around the globe.

The meticulous lineage of each boot starts when Bingaman’s design is rendered by an artist. The drawings are then scanned and sent to the artisan shoe makers, who craft the signature molds per each design. Hand-fabrication of one pair of HELM boots takes five days. The leather is cut by hand according to the exclusive molds of each design. The leather pieces are then hand-stitched to together and nailed to the mold. The hand-nailing process takes 48 to 72 hours and allows time for the leather to shape to the mold. Then, while still on the mold, the nails are removed and the sole is stitched to the rest of the boot – and continues to shape for another 24 hours. Lastly, the boot is removed from the mold, brushed, cleaned and polished. When you wear HELM Handmade Boots you’re walking around in art.