Cover
and personalized ‘Sent&Received’ Christmas card posted on December 12, 2012.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
BULGARIA – Cover from Sofia, Bulgaria to Braga, Portugal
Registered
cover and postcard posted on December 12, 2012.
(A
very special thanks to my Best friend Tsvetana Petrova)
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
ENGLAND – Cover from West Yorkshire, United Kingdom to Braga, Portugal
Cover
with stamps posted on January 3, 2013.
(A
very special thanks to A. Heaps)
Technical
Details
The
Great Tudor
450th
Death Anniversary of King Henry VIII
Date
of Issue: January 21, 1997
Values:
seven stamps of 26p each
Designer:
Kate Stephens
Printer:
Waddingtons Security Print Ltd
Process: gravure
Size:
stamp 30mm (h) x 41mm (v)
Perforation:
15 x 14
Paper:
Watermark:
Sheet:
Technical
Details
London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Definitives
Date
of Issue: January 5, 2012
Values:
two 1st class stamps for inland use and two for worldwide use to post items
until 20gm.
Designer:
Studio Dempsey
Printer:
De La Rue Security Printers
(The
booklet stamps are printed by Walsall Security Printers)
Process:
gravure
Size:
20mm (h) x 24mm (v)
Perforation:
15 x 14
Paper:
self-adhesive
Watermark:
Sheet:
Booklets of six stamps
Great
British Fashion
Date
of Issue: May 15, 2012
Values:
ten 1st class stamps
Designer:
Johnson Banks
Printer:
Cartor Security Print
(The
booklet stamps are printed by Walsall Security Printers)
Process:
Lithography
Size:
35mm (h) x 37mm (v)
Perforation:
14.5 x 14
Paper:
Gummed PVA
Watermark:
Sheet:
1st
Class – Hardy Amies
.... became managing director of Mayfair couture house Lachesse in 1934. After World War II he opened his own fashion business in Savile Row. Amies was the first major European fashion designer to venture into ready-to-wear and in 1955 received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to the Queen. Other commissions have included clothing for the 1966 England World Cup squad and the 1972 GB Olympic squad and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Amies’ outfit shown on the stamp dates from the late 1940s.
1st Class – Norman Hartnell
.... opened his first couture house at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair in 1923. In 1940 he received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth, subsequently Royal Warrant as dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. A Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II was issued in 1957. The stamp shows an outfit created by Hartnell in the 1950s.
1st Class – Granny Takes a Trip
.... was a boutique opened in February 1965 at 488 Kings Road in London’s Chelsea, by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and John Pearse. The shop, which was acquired by Freddie Hornik in 1969,
remained open until the mid-70s and has been called the ‘first psychedelic boutique in Groovy London of the 1960s’. The jacket shown on the stamp was designed by John Pearse using a Morris & Co. furniture fabric print called Golden Lily (1899).
1st Class – Ossie Clark print by Celia Birtwell
Raymond ‘Ossie Clark’ was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era. Clark is now renowned for his vintage designs by present-day designers and compared to the 1960s fashion greats Mary Quant and Biba. He has influenced many other designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Anna Sui and Tom Ford. The outfit shown on the stamp dates from the late 1960s and features a print by Celia Birtwell.
1st Class – Tommy Nutter
.... recreated the Savile Row suit in the 1960s. In 1969, he joined up with Edward Sexton, to open Nutters of Savile Row. Nutter combined traditional tailoring skills with innovative design. His clients included Mick Jagger and Elton John. Nutter was most proud of the fact that he dressed three out of the four Beatles on the cover of the LP Abbey Road. The suit featured on the stamp was originally designed for
Ringo Starr and has been recreated especially for the photo shoot.
1st Class – Jean Muir
....worked briefly in a solicitor’s office before taking a stockroom job at Liberty & Co in 1950. Despite her lack of formal art college training, she was given the opportunity to sketch in Liberty’s ready-to-wear department, which led to her gaining a job as designer for Jaeger in 1956. Her own label Jean and Jane was launched in 1962 followed by Jean Muir Ltd in 1966. Famous clients include former Muir model
Joanna Lumley, Charlotte Rampling and Maggie Smith. The outfit featured here dates to the late 70s / early 80s.
1st Class – Zandra Rhodes
.... was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs are considered clear, creative statements, dramatic but graceful, bold but feminine. Rhodes’s inspiration has been from organic material and nature. Her approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use of reversed exposed seams and in her use of jewelled safety pins and tears during the punk era.
With her bright green hair (later pink and sometimes red or other colours), theatrical makeup and art jewellery, she stamped her own clear identity on the international world of fashion. Rhodes designed for Diana, Princess of Wales, and continues to design for royalty and celebrities. She notably designed several outfits for Freddie Mercury. The early 80s gold ‘Royal’ dress shown here comes from Zandra Rhodes’s personal collection.
1st Class – Vivienne Westwood
.... is largely responsible for bringing punk fashion into the mainstream. In the mid-1970s with Malcolm McLaren, Westwood created clothes drawing inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes, which McLaren sold from his Kings Road boutique. When McLaren became manager of the Sex Pistols, the band wore Westwood and McLaren’s designs. The ‘punk style’ included bondage gear, safety pins, razor
blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery. Westwood’s work includes the adoption of traditional elements of Scottish design, such as tartan fabric, and the reinterpretation of 17th and 18th century cloth cutting principles.
Her first catwalk show was presented in 1981, featuring the collaboration of Westwood and McLaren. The first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004–05 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The 1993 Harlequin dress shown here was famously modeled by Naomi Campbell
1st Class – Paul Smith
.... left school at 15 with the ambition of becoming a racing cyclist. A cycling accident put an end to his cycling hopes, and during the six-month hospital stay that followed Smith made some new friends. After leaving hospital he arranged to meet them at a local pub that was popular with art students. It was then that he realised he wanted to be a designer. Smith took evening tailoring classes with Gordon Valentine Tipton, who showed him how to cut cloth as well as taught him all the basics. Later Smith joined Lincroft Kilgour in Savile Row, where his designs were worn by celebrities, including George Best. He opened his fi rst shop in 1970. In 1976 Smith’s first menswear collection was shown in Paris, under the Paul Smith label. In 1998, he showed his first women’s collection at London Fashion Week.
Paul Smith remains fully involved in the business, designing clothes, choosing fabrics, approving the shop locations and overseeing every development within the company. He has showrooms in London, Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo. The suit on the stamp dates from around 2003.
1st Class – Alexander McQueen
.... was a fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows. He worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and founded his own label under the name Alexander McQueen. His achievements have earned four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year award in 2003. The piece shown on the stamp is ‘Black Raven’ from McQueen’s Horn of Plenty 2009 collection.
.... became managing director of Mayfair couture house Lachesse in 1934. After World War II he opened his own fashion business in Savile Row. Amies was the first major European fashion designer to venture into ready-to-wear and in 1955 received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to the Queen. Other commissions have included clothing for the 1966 England World Cup squad and the 1972 GB Olympic squad and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Amies’ outfit shown on the stamp dates from the late 1940s.
1st Class – Norman Hartnell
.... opened his first couture house at 10 Bruton Street, Mayfair in 1923. In 1940 he received a Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth, subsequently Royal Warrant as dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. A Royal Warrant as dressmaker to Queen Elizabeth II was issued in 1957. The stamp shows an outfit created by Hartnell in the 1950s.
1st Class – Granny Takes a Trip
.... was a boutique opened in February 1965 at 488 Kings Road in London’s Chelsea, by Nigel Waymouth, his girlfriend Sheila Cohen and John Pearse. The shop, which was acquired by Freddie Hornik in 1969,
remained open until the mid-70s and has been called the ‘first psychedelic boutique in Groovy London of the 1960s’. The jacket shown on the stamp was designed by John Pearse using a Morris & Co. furniture fabric print called Golden Lily (1899).
1st Class – Ossie Clark print by Celia Birtwell
Raymond ‘Ossie Clark’ was a major figure in the Swinging Sixties scene in London and the fashion industry in that era. Clark is now renowned for his vintage designs by present-day designers and compared to the 1960s fashion greats Mary Quant and Biba. He has influenced many other designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Anna Sui and Tom Ford. The outfit shown on the stamp dates from the late 1960s and features a print by Celia Birtwell.
1st Class – Tommy Nutter
.... recreated the Savile Row suit in the 1960s. In 1969, he joined up with Edward Sexton, to open Nutters of Savile Row. Nutter combined traditional tailoring skills with innovative design. His clients included Mick Jagger and Elton John. Nutter was most proud of the fact that he dressed three out of the four Beatles on the cover of the LP Abbey Road. The suit featured on the stamp was originally designed for
Ringo Starr and has been recreated especially for the photo shoot.
1st Class – Jean Muir
....worked briefly in a solicitor’s office before taking a stockroom job at Liberty & Co in 1950. Despite her lack of formal art college training, she was given the opportunity to sketch in Liberty’s ready-to-wear department, which led to her gaining a job as designer for Jaeger in 1956. Her own label Jean and Jane was launched in 1962 followed by Jean Muir Ltd in 1966. Famous clients include former Muir model
Joanna Lumley, Charlotte Rampling and Maggie Smith. The outfit featured here dates to the late 70s / early 80s.
1st Class – Zandra Rhodes
.... was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs are considered clear, creative statements, dramatic but graceful, bold but feminine. Rhodes’s inspiration has been from organic material and nature. Her approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use of reversed exposed seams and in her use of jewelled safety pins and tears during the punk era.
With her bright green hair (later pink and sometimes red or other colours), theatrical makeup and art jewellery, she stamped her own clear identity on the international world of fashion. Rhodes designed for Diana, Princess of Wales, and continues to design for royalty and celebrities. She notably designed several outfits for Freddie Mercury. The early 80s gold ‘Royal’ dress shown here comes from Zandra Rhodes’s personal collection.
1st Class – Vivienne Westwood
.... is largely responsible for bringing punk fashion into the mainstream. In the mid-1970s with Malcolm McLaren, Westwood created clothes drawing inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes, which McLaren sold from his Kings Road boutique. When McLaren became manager of the Sex Pistols, the band wore Westwood and McLaren’s designs. The ‘punk style’ included bondage gear, safety pins, razor
blades, bicycle or lavatory chains on clothing and spiked dog collars for jewellery. Westwood’s work includes the adoption of traditional elements of Scottish design, such as tartan fabric, and the reinterpretation of 17th and 18th century cloth cutting principles.
Her first catwalk show was presented in 1981, featuring the collaboration of Westwood and McLaren. The first major retrospective of her work was shown in 2004–05 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The 1993 Harlequin dress shown here was famously modeled by Naomi Campbell
1st Class – Paul Smith
.... left school at 15 with the ambition of becoming a racing cyclist. A cycling accident put an end to his cycling hopes, and during the six-month hospital stay that followed Smith made some new friends. After leaving hospital he arranged to meet them at a local pub that was popular with art students. It was then that he realised he wanted to be a designer. Smith took evening tailoring classes with Gordon Valentine Tipton, who showed him how to cut cloth as well as taught him all the basics. Later Smith joined Lincroft Kilgour in Savile Row, where his designs were worn by celebrities, including George Best. He opened his fi rst shop in 1970. In 1976 Smith’s first menswear collection was shown in Paris, under the Paul Smith label. In 1998, he showed his first women’s collection at London Fashion Week.
Paul Smith remains fully involved in the business, designing clothes, choosing fabrics, approving the shop locations and overseeing every development within the company. He has showrooms in London, Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo. The suit on the stamp dates from around 2003.
1st Class – Alexander McQueen
.... was a fashion designer and couturier best known for his in-depth knowledge of bespoke British tailoring, his tendency to juxtapose strength with fragility in his collections, as well as the emotional power and raw energy of his provocative fashion shows. He worked as chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001 and founded his own label under the name Alexander McQueen. His achievements have earned four British Designer of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003), as well as the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year award in 2003. The piece shown on the stamp is ‘Black Raven’ from McQueen’s Horn of Plenty 2009 collection.
Monday, January 28, 2013
BANGLADESH – Postcard from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Braga, Portugal
Postcard
posted on December 12, 2012.
(Special
thanks to my friend Dr. Tanvir Rahman)
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